Collection Care + Technology

We are caretakers at our core and put the art entrusted to us and the complex requirements of short- and long-term collection care at the center of everything we do.

Minnesota Street Project Art Services’ Collection Care department is integrated into each phase of an artwork’s movement to ensure safe housing, travel, and storage. Our team of professional registrars conduct collection inventories, provides condition reports, develops proactive plans for evaluating short- and long-term packing strategies, facilitates conservation and appraisals, and works closely with our art-handling teams to ensure a high level of recording and tracking within our digital systems.

Additional Collection Care services include artwork and object registration via Minnesota Street Project Art Services’ proprietary warehouse management and tracking system, in-house and field condition reporting, emergency preparedness consultation, custom packing and crating, and access to private viewing rooms.

Emergency Preparedness

With the number of environmental and natural disasters increasing each year, it is vitally important to have trusted collection care and art service providers you can rely on to react to emergency situations that can threaten the safety of your treasured artworks. Equally if not more important is the need to have a proactive plan in place to enable a timely response to any disaster event with accurate information and materials so proper decisions can be made to keep your collection out of harm’s way.

Our goal with the MSP Art Services Emergency Preparedness Program is to assist in preparing your collection for a safe and smooth evacuation from danger, whether that be well in advance or directly in the face of encroaching hazardous conditions. Detailed documentation, onsite evaluation and mapping, and specialized assessment of necessary support materials allow us to get all relevant professional perspectives on your collection to develop an effective Emergency Preparedness Action Plan.

In preparation for a site visit with our team, clients will receive our Collections Care team’s 360° evaluation of collection needs based on information provided by the client through consultation with our Registration team and/or use of our Emergency Preparedness Artwork List.

Emergency Preparedness consultations provide clients with a fully customized report including:

• Floorplan of any areas of the home necessary for evaluation
• Access and egress points with evacuation plan for each artwork
• Designation of each artwork location within the home
• Artwork inventory
• Complete list with dimensions, packing recommendations, and any associated object counts
• Compilation of artwork images, including relevant notes from site visit
• Completed condition reports (for pre-identified works)
• Preventative measure recommendations for 2-D works and sculptures to help keep works safe in earthquake or flood events, as well as other natural environmental or household exposures (e.g., UV, excess moisture, high traffic, etc.)
• Evaluation of packing, crating, and fabrication needs, and any other materials required for expedited removal of collection or measures for protection in place
• Storage recommendations
• Recommendation for condition reports
• Removal notes listing any recommended or relevant materials, equipment, and number of handlers needed for evacuation

Technology

Our in-house Technology team is constantly developing new ways to improve the art storage and collection management experience. We are helping to move the art logistics industry into the 21st century by offering a comprehensive and proprietary database along with digital bills of lading (BOLs) and condition reports.

Our proprietary technology includes:

• State-of-the-art building controls for robust, 24/7 management of environmental conditions, security, and warehouse access
• Proprietary detailed, comprehensive, and secure record-keeping database used to track all artworks for storage in our facilities — the life of all artworks in our care is recorded through our barcode-scanning system
• Collection management software available to our Storage clients allows for real-time visibility into the status of artworks and objects that are or have been in our care
• Unique systems and protocols for storage and conservation of technology- and media-based artworks
• Ability to add real-time accessible climate monitors to any stored objects

ObjecTracker

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Our proprietary in-house warehouse management system, ObjecTracker, elevates our team’s collection care access to artwork, including the ability to:

• Track all objects in our warehouse using anonymous client codes and secure barcodes
• Record and track artwork files and metadata in our digital storage system
• Associate and track multiple physical and digital objects, and any related photos and documentation
• Recall the exact locations of all objects in our warehouse at any time
• Store and download condition reports, contracts, and other documentation associated with artworks and objects
• Store and view bills of lading (BOLs) and other information relevant to handling and transportation services
• Store, manage, and download multiple hi-resolution images per artwork and object
• Instantly report how much and what types of storage is used by the artworks, objects, and collections that clients store in our warehouse
• Provide customized reports
• Maintain and securely replicate all data and stored documents on our servers in multiple physical locations using Amazon Web Services

ARTracker

ARTracker is the client-facing version of our management software and provides our clients a real-time, online view into our warehouse data, stored documents, and photos. This service is available upon request to clients with at least 500 cubic feet of static storage and allows password-protected access to data associated with client accounts.

ARTracker provides online viewing access and is accessible from any computer, phone, or tablet with an internet connection and can be customized by us to meet the needs of individual clients, advisors, galleries, and institutions.

ARTracker’s Storage View shows data, photos, and documents associated with a client’s artworks and objects that we manage in our warehouse. For clients not interested in using the complete suite of tools for collection management, this view provides all information that is required to find and download documents and photos and to keep track of stored work and billing costs.

For more information on ARTracker, please email registration@minnesotastreetproject.com.

Digital Condition Reports and BOLs

To reduce our carbon footprint, while also streamlining the process for quickly getting important documentation to our clients, we have digitized all our bills of lading (BOLs) and condition reports. Upon completion, these documents can easily be sent to you for your records, at the simple push of a button.