Collection management
The ongoing work of documenting, maintaining, and making decisions about a body of artworks: from accession records and condition reports to conservation schedules and public access.
Managing a public art collection is harder than managing a museum's, in one specific way: the works are outdoors, distributed across an entire city, and exposed to weather, traffic, and everyone. There is no climate control and no guard. Stewardship happens through records, schedules, and site visits.
For most cities the honest first project isn't a new commission at all; it's finding out what the collection already contains. Inventories are almost always incomplete, and the gap between "what we own" and "what we can list" is where works get lost. Closing that gap is what collections management software is for.