For those who I haven’t met yet, I’m Brandi, and I’m an
British-American Collection Manager and Registrar who, after being born and
raised in the US, moved last year to London in order to try my hand at the art
world on this side of the pond.
I’m sure all Registrars across the world can name the ways
in which we are similar, despite our geographic locations – arranging transport
of loans and exhibitions, confirming the packing of artworks are up to a
universal standard, and, of course, metaphorically holding the hand of panicked
couriers – but what has struck me since relocating is how different we are as
well.
The easiest and most obvious is of course our terms for
items of our daily life. Growing up with
family members from opposite sides of the ocean taught me at an early age of
things like pram/carriage, pictures/movies, and aubergine/eggplant, but not
until I had worked in galleries and museums was I introduced to Registrar-specific
differences like skate/dolly, lorry/truck, and boot/trunk.
Non-surprisingly this has been the easiest hurdle to
overcome, whereas perhaps the most complicated would be the role of the
Registrar (and note for ease I will include Exhibition Managers in this term
“Registrar” as well, since in my vernacular it references working with
collections or exhibitions).
In the US, the Registrar is, among other things, responsible
for all condition checking and packing of works. Though I and my former colleagues are used to
being questioned by UK lenders as to why the Registrar (rather than
Conservator) would be condition checking a work with them, the full extent of
how much Registrar responsibility is allocated to Conservators in this country
had never fully sunk in. I even heard
recently of private collectors arranging a house move with a Conservator rather
than a Registrar; having them arranging the packing, shipping and relocation
into storage is truly baffling to my US senses.
It’s perhaps for this reason that I’m finding less occurrences of
contract Registrars working on museum exhibitions, and with private collectors
and foundations, whereas it is near standard in the US.
In my now 7 months of direct experience with UK trucking, I
can assuredly say that couriers here are blessed with their required overnight
stops (as opposed to our 3 day non-stop journeys from California to New York),
as well as having lorries driven by members of the company you contracted for
the job, not the usual husband and wife (and sometimes dog) teams you get in
the US!
I doubt the idea of National collections not insuring their
works will ever cease to give me heart palpitations, especially when lending
between institutions, and that’s not to mention the concept of “non-national”
and “designated collections”. In the US,
all collections are commercially insured, even those we deem our “national”
collections. Our other option - US
Indemnity - is a lengthy, arduous process that occurs twice a year for
exhibitions, not for temporary deposits or long loans in. Please be kind to those US Registrars asking
you seemingly crazy questions while they work on their applications, because
they’re well over 100 pages and I can guarantee that no one enjoys doing
them. I’d take a UK indemnity
application in a heartbeat compared to the alternative, though in a similar
vein, the UK’s export licenses (for those works not covered by OIEL) are
complicated and completed by Registrars, whereas the customs brokers complete
these on your behalf in the US. So
perhaps it all balances out in the end!
At the recent UKRG conference in Edinburgh, we listened to a
talk about changes in property laws, and I was amazed to hear that the UK
didn’t have a procedure in place for deaccessioning portions of
collections. The United States has long
standing laws governing museums and their collections, with specific
information on deaccessioning (http://www.aam-us.org/resources/assessment-programs/core-documents/documents). In the past decade, many states have
individually addressed the issue of undocumented and abandoned property as
well, outlining their requirements for disposing of these works which have long
languished in institutions. It is a complicated process – many times involving
posting ads in newspapers and strict timelines for attempting to locate owners
– but it does exist.
I’m sure I could expound endlessly on my experiences thus
far, but in all honesty, I feel I’m only just beginning to understand the
intricacies of working in this amazing country. My friends and colleagues here in the UK love
to laugh about some of my American phrases (I apologise now to anyone I’ve
confused or bemused by “reaching out” to you via email), but I’m grateful
because each time it serves to remind me how even the smallest differences
register to a Registrar. One thing I know for sure: the US and UK are better
places because of us.
Brandi Pomfret is the owner of Echelon Arts Management and
currently a maternity cover Collection Registrar at the National Gallery.
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