Moving the National Collection

Relocating artefacts to the new museum support facility.

While we may have been quieter than usual in recent weeks, we've been hard at work behind the scenes on a major project that requires “all hands on deck”: the relocation of our collection to a new facility.

Our collection is vast, comprising approximately 12,000 artefacts, including art and craft pieces, natural history specimens, memorabilia, traditional furniture, architectural details, archaeological finds, and maritime objects. It serves as a unique national repository of the history, memories, and heritage of the Cayman Islands. Part of this collection is on display at the Museum, located in the historic Court House building at 64 Seafarers Way, and at the Cayman Collections Centre in West Bay, a facility managed by the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Heritage. The rest is in storage, where it is utilized for temporary exhibitions, research, education, and archival purposes, as is the norm at most museums, internationally.

Mr. Doss Solomon points out new outfitting at the museum support facility.

Relocating a collection of this size is no small feat. It involves multiple tasks, including outfitting the new facility to meet museum storage standards, preparing the artefacts for transportation, moving storage hardware (mostly shelving), and finally, relocating the artefacts themselves. Due to the importance of our collection, each of these steps requires the utmost care and attention. This is why we’ve temporarily paused our regular programming to focus on this significant task.

Brian Watler Jr. and Megan Arch in action, making sure each artefact finds its perfect spot in our new home.

In addition to the move, we’re taking the opportunity to review our collection and enhance our collections management program. This will include conducting condition reports, recommending conservation actions, and migrating our collections records to a new, state-of-the-art museum database. This upgraded system will allow us to share select artefacts online via our website. We’re also planning several exhibitions that will showcase items from our collection that have never been displayed before, both at the Museum and other venues. Additionally, we’re considering some updates to our permanent exhibitions to allow for a rotating display of more artefacts.

Jevaughn Lynch carefully measures a vintage typewriter as part of the meticulous documentation process for our collection relocation.

Relocating our collection is truly a team effort, involving our dedicated staff, a small group of specially trained interns, and a number of volunteers. Our Director, Dr. Veerle Poupeye, oversees the project, while two key staff members are coordinating the move: our Operations Manager, Doss Solomon, is handling the technical aspects of the relocation, and Collections Manager, Megan Arch, is managing the preparation and movement of the artefacts and overseeing the overall collections management. We’re also fortunate to have the support of Brian Watler Jr., our Marketing, Events & Design Coordinator, and Al Ebanks, our Exhibition Coordinator, both of whom are actively involved in the process. Additionally, we have a talented group of student interns from UCCI assisting with the project. At present, this includes Jaeda-Lee Pindling and Tyler Coore. Our volunteers, including former Director Dr. Peggy Leshikar-Denton, Sue Gibbs, and Jevaughn Lynch, are playing a vital role as well. Dr. Leshikar-Denton, a renowned maritime archaeologist, is also offering invaluable technical advice on our archaeological holdings. We’ve also received much-appreciated technical support from the Public Works Department.

We expect to complete the relocation by the end of this month, and we look forward to resuming our regular programming in May, with several exciting exhibitions and events on the horizon.

Al Ebanks, our new Exhibition Coordinator, stands in the recently outfitted museum support facility.