MIMA

Mima brings together the town’s art and craft collection for the first time, incorporating the Cleveland Gallery, Cleveland Craft Centre and Middlesborough Art Gallery. mima houses exhibitions of fine art and craft from the 1900s to modern day. It features the work of much-admired artists and includes paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewellery design, photography and sculpture.

Previous staff experiences showed that storage was an important factor. However, cost is often an even bigger factor! Lack of funding, space and environmental control is often cited as the reason storage is neglected within museums and galleries. mima understood the importance of functional storage solutions and as such included the costs during the financial planning of the development. mima also had the foresight to use the storage system as an area where collections of local importance can be viewed. By making an appointment, anybody interested in these collections can view them in the new storage area on the first floor.

Mima quoted cost, optimal use of space, flexibility of storage, quality of finishes and deliverability within a tight timescale as the most important requirements for this project. “We awarded System Store Solutions the contract because its original tender blew us out of the water, by meeting the criteria for the project more closely than the other companies who tendered”, explained Julia Palmer, mima Manager. “System Store Solutions was excellent from start to finish. It took just a couple of months to install, and throughout that time the storage company’s staff were efficient, professional and friendly.”

System Store Solutions took responsibility for providing safe and secure storage for the ceramics and jewellery collections. mima’s British Ceramic Art collection is an influential collection of more than 250 items that charts the development of the Studio Pottery movement in the early 20th Century, right through to the present day. mima wanted a storage system that enabled the safekeeping of these ceramics coupled with a visual display for public viewing. System Store Solutions recommended its display shelving and cabinets to create easy public viewing, together with the safety and protection for the historic collection.

Alongside the collections of modern and contemporary art and ceramics, mima houses an outstanding collection of contemporary jewellery, displaying the development of jewellery design from the inception of the New Jewellery Movement in the 1980s through to contemporary works. Again, this collection had to be available for public viewing in the storage area and had a combined requirement of visibility and security. Fitted with a high security lock per drawer for added security and smooth running drawers, visual browser display cabinets were chosen. The display cabinets allow the best platform for viewing and storing the jewellery collection, while being versatile enough to accommodate different collections. Looking to the future, if the collection expands, horizontal and vertical display units can be fitted on top to conserve valuable floor space or 6.4mm laminated glass tops can be added to further aid viewing.

System Store Solutions also provided specially designed plan chests for unframed artwork that encompasses a foldaway holder to enable artwork to be viewed at an angle for optimum viewing. Open shelving for small framed artwork and with mobile trolleys for the safe transportation of valuable artwork was also supplied.

A noticeable benefit of the storage system is its aesthetic design. System Store Solutions provided mima with units that were not only functional, but also looked clean and smooth. The physical appearance of the units was as important as their function, because they themselves form part of the display.

“Implementing such diverse systems to handle various collections, involved working very closely with the gallery”, explained Andrew Patey, Museum Project Manager at System Store Solutions. “Because of our relationship, forward planning and experience, the installation by our in-house SEIRS recognised installers ran smoothly without disruption to the general development and building work.”

The company’s extensive experience in providing storage for the museum and heritage industry is evident. The high quality flexible storage system provided fits well with the gallery’s own plans and objectives and was delivered within a tight timescale at a competitive price.