I have recently been sent some images of the work in progress for Axel Stenross Maritime Museum’s new collection store. With space at a bit of a premium the museum devised an innovative way to make storage space – by creating a room in the walkway space between two buildings. So with lots of planning, volunteer effort and a few thousand dollars from the Community Museums Program grant fund, the museum has completed the store and started moving collection items in for safe keeping.
The new store is part of the museum’s grand plan to return the part of the museum which was Axel Stenross’s home and workshop to looking just like it was when was his home and workshop. During the course of the project I had several interesting conversations with Andrew, the museum committee secretary, about lining and insulating the room, whether or not to have a roller door for external access (decided against) and what to put on the floor. Floor question led to a conversation with Artlab about the relative merits of different types of vinyl tiles – who would have thought that lighter colours off-gas less and so reduce that risk to items in storage!