Good use: a study of collection utilisation at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Abstract

How museums utilise their collections has become a highly-charged issue amongst museum professionals, funding authorities and museum visitors. In the current climate of accountability, museums are no longer assessed by the artworks and artefacts in their storeroom, but by how they put those objects to use. This thesis examines how the Dunedin Public Art Gallery (DPAG) has utilised its permanent collection of fine and decorative arts, along with the factors that have influenced the current understanding of the collection's 'use value', in order to provide an overview of collection utilisation in one New Zealand art museum. Case studies of exhibitions and public programmes at the DPAG from 1990 to 2006 are situated within a context of local social issues and wider museological trends, by using a multi-method approach that combines theory, interviews, archival records, newspapers, exhibition catalogues and other historical evidence. In order to move beyond the current impasse in museum theory - a debate over whether museums should remain 'inwards' focused on their collections or become 'outwards' focused on their visitors, this thesis applies Nick Prior's (2003) notion of 'double-coding' to argue that museums can do both simultaneously. Case studies of collection use at the DPAG demonstrate how inwards (collection) and outwards (visitor) priorities can be integrated into museum practice in ways that facilitate a wider understanding of how museums operate. This thesis suggests that the value of the collection is increasingly predicated upon its usefulness for exhibitions and the benefits it provides for visitors, which can overlook the other reasons for which collections have historically been developed and the intrinsic elements that make collections meaningful. By acknowledging both the historical and contemporary values that have been associated with collections, this study proposes a more balanced approach to understanding the changing value of collections in the contemporary museum. An historicised account of the DPAG provides a platform for further research, and contributes to the growing body of literature in the field of museum studies which seeks to build a deeper understanding of past and present practices in New Zealand art museums. Through a nuanced and holistic analysis of collections utilisation, the research contributes to a little-explored, yet highly topical aspect of the museum sector today.