Moving Prints: from passe-partouts to digitisation
Did you know that our Print Room houses more than 23,000 works on paper? All those prints, drawings, sketchbooks, posters, ex-libris, postcards and much more will soon be moving to a brand-new print depot in the new, state-of-the-art museum building BRUSK. How do we ensure that we can move all these prints in the best possible condition? With the help of our volunteers – and a generous dose of organisational talent.
In a previous blog post, we showed how, thanks to three open registration projects, we were able to carry out in-depth registration and digitisation of several sub-collections from the Print Room. Our other prints are now also being carefully given new passe-partouts (acid-free mounts), and registered and prepared for their move to the new depot.
If you've ever moved house yourself, you know how much organisation it requires. To ensure the move goes smoothly and to guarantee that all works are transferred from our current depot to the new one in good condition, a great deal of behind-the-scenes work is happening in the Print Room. Once again, our colleagues at the Print Room can count on the help of some fantastic volunteers, whom we are more than happy to put in the spotlight.
Making passe-partouts
With the help of our enthusiastic volunteers, we fold acid-free paper into passe-partouts to store the prints. These folders are cut by hand to size and given a unique object number so that we can easily locate a specific print.
Sometimes a work was previously given a passe-partout. The cardboard of the old folders is often now acidic, which is not ideal for the works. Jutta, our collection curator for paper heritage, carefully removes the old passe-partouts from the drawings and replaces them with new, acid-free ones.
Works on paper are attached at the top to the mount with hinges of thin Japanese paper. This allows a print to be lifted easily so the back can be described — and who knows, perhaps something interesting is written or drawn there too!
Registration and digitisation
In the Print Room depot, the volunteers assist Evelien, our Print Room curator, with the registration of works on paper. At the moment, the heart of the collection — the prints collected by John Steinmetz and donated to the City of Bruges in 1864 — is being examined and entered into the digital collection management system.
To do this, Evelien and the volunteers carefully study the prints, determining what is depicted and who made the work.
The prints and drawings are also measured. These measurements, along with all other data, are recorded in the collection management system so they can be easily retrieved later.
Moving fragile collections, such as our print collection, requires great care and precision. Nevertheless, thanks to the smooth and friendly collaboration with our enthusiastic volunteers, the preparations for the move to our new depot in BRUSK are taking clearer shape each day.
