Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2021 07 21

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itvt)r Louisville COLORADO - SINCE 1878 Memorandum To: Historical Commission From: Bridget Bacon, Museum Services Supervisor Date: July 13, 2021 Re: Background information on the Louisville Historical Museum's collection reorganization project, including plans for off -site storage Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum was pursuing a design for a building expansion to increase exhibit space and address collection storage issues. In March 2020, as an architectural firm was about to start work to solicit community input on the project and develop a schematic design, the City unfortunately had to cancel the contract, and the expansion plans are on hold. The Museum must now look for alternative strategies for collection storage. The collection is in need of increased storage and re -organization so that artifacts are properly stored, grouped, and made accessible. The Museum houses thousands of artifacts accepted over a period of 35 years in multiple locations in its small historic buildings, the City Services building, and in office space at the Library. The Museum rooms are small, so many items are tucked into available spaces. Museum staff member Gigi Yang and I are working together on a collection re- organization project. We are seeking to move some bulky furniture and other large artifacts to a small climate -controlled, off -site rental storage unit located in Louisville in order to create a more effective shelving plan for cataloged collections and space for processing donations on the Museum campus. The rest of the collections would remain accessible on the campus. Ideally, I hope that we will be able to return the items from off - site storage after the creation of collection space as part of the Museum expansion. A goal of the re -organization will include shelving similar items together and separating permanent collections from new donations, educational items, and programming materials. We are also planning to apply for a $2500 grant to pay for compact shelving for the Jordinelli House. The new compact shelving would make more efficient use of the current collections storage space and provide an estimated additional 90 feet of shelving. As part of the re -organization, we would like to re -categorize selected artifacts as being in the Education Collection instead of the Permanent Collection so that the items can be used to furnish the Cabins, which will not have climate control. This item is on the meeting agenda to discuss with respect to the Trott -Downer Cabins, with the Museum staff to request approval to do this from the Commission at an upcoming meeting.