Collections Management System: How Did We Select One?
X Gallery Art is a relatively new company but in three years the collections have grown substantially. The first work to arrive in 2017 was a print collection of 90 works on paper. All the storage required for this was a flat file. By the end of 2019, we had 14 collections and a total of 1,995 objects. Then in late 2019, a local collection of about 2,500 objects arrived. We found our stage space packed to the gills.
Aside from having to be very efficient in storing objects in the vault we found that X Gallery had outgrown our original custom software. So, we set out to find a collection management system that would support our needs.
We are a little bit different than other entities working with art collections. As a non-collecting storage facility, X Gallery is not a museum and we are not a gallery, but we encompass elements of both industries. As part of our process, we do develop and maintain information related to each object: artist, media, size, condition, and location. We also administer information related to each client and note whether the objects are for sale and their price or value. One thing we do that neither museums nor galleries do is charge our clients monthly storage fees—this is really the differentiating factor.
There are many options for collection management, so we started with conducting internal reviews of what our current system offered and what we wanted to accomplish. We narrowed our wish list down to the following functionality:
• Export data easily, in spreadsheet or .csv format (with images ideally)
• Ability to pre-format lists of data for various functions
• Track locations
• Search data at multiple levels
• Batch process data with option to import .csv or another common file format
• Robust image handling (thumbnails & full size images, import common file format)
• Financial/billing component to auto calculate storage space x time x cost, multiple types of fields
• Online access to collections (image plus info), with various access levels to edit/view
• Multiple fields for size, weight, container, etc. related to billing
• Inventory capability to audit collections
• Status field related to client activities (in, out, at other location, sold, appraisal, etc.)
• Flexible fields for data with capacity for expansion, all fields need to be searchable
We researched many options and reduced it to four, well really five because one company had two different systems: Art Base, Argus, Collection Space, EmbArk and TMS. Next, X Gallery contacted the companies on our short list and asked to see demonstrations of their products. After all the demos and reviews we ultimately decided on Argus by Lucidea. It seemed to be the best fit for our size and our projected growth.
Once we selected the product, we began data preparation for migrating to the new system. This is a topic for another post, so hang tight and check back at a later date. Fast forward four and a half months and we are now live with our new collection management system (CMS). We have all the functionality we outlined above, and it makes a world of difference in our day to day operations. It makes a real difference for our clients, too. There are individual portals for clients to view their collections and the status of each object. Through their portals clients can make direct object selections and requests via the system which attaches the exact data associated with each object for us without the client having to write down or remember those particulars. We can maintain a history of each object’s movement over the duration of its time with us including loans to museums or galleries, appraisals, conservation work, or any other situation. Additionally, custom reports can be generated for clients based their particular need.
The system has proven extremely flexible, and we are very pleased with its functionality. We have proven the soundness of our choice already in adding a new storage product. We now store archives for arts and cultural organizations and the CMS is flexible enough to allow us to add this new type of collection with only minor adjustments. If you are a client—or think you need our services—contact us for a tour not only of our facility, but of our CMS. We would really like for it to be as useful to you as it is for us.
