---
title: "Collection management"
description: "The ongoing work of documenting, maintaining, and making decisions about a body of artworks, from accession records to condition reports and public access."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/collection-management"
---

# Collection management

> The ongoing work of documenting, maintaining, and making decisions about a body of artworks, from accession records to condition reports and public access.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/collection-management

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](https://www.civiccollection.com/collections-management) is for.

Related terms: [Accession](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/accession), [Condition report](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/condition-report), [Conservation](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/conservation), [Deaccession](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/deaccession)

## Mentioned in

- [From Open Data to a Living Guide](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/from-open-data-to-a-living-guide)
- [Introducing Civic Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/introducing-civic-collection)