Museums today face a variety of challenges: One is plagued by a museum depot full to the brim, another has difficulties accommodating large-format and bulky objects in the depot due to suboptimal use of space and a third struggles with pest infestation or inadequate climatic conditions that make storing objects dangerous. That’s why this year’s FOCUS event, which takes place from April 15 to 17, 2019, is all about depot planning and collection management. The three-day specialist congress at the Paulikloster in Brandenburg an der Havel will be dedicated to numerous lectures, field reports and discussion formats on the following topics: holistic project management for new and renovated collection depots, relocation management, logistics and transportation, collection management, security, emergency and risk management, pest prevention, storage technology, collection software, inventory, indoor climate, light protection, energy efficiency, conservational aspects, funding opportunities and operating concepts. Focus is an interdisciplinary forum for specialists from the museum, exhibition and cultural sectors. This year, the focus will therefore be on storage planning and collection management, with the FOCUS event covering a wide range of cultural institutions, large and small museums, archives and the special case of archaeological collections. In the accompanying communication formats in the form of workshops and a fishbowl discussion, but also at a joint dinner on the first day and a small get-together on the second day of the event, there will be the opportunity to make contacts with the participants and to engage in interdisciplinary discussions. Detailed solutions, best practice examples and also current products and service processes will be discussed. As usual, technical products and services from specialist companies will be presented in the approximately 1000 m² historic nave.
FOCUS: MUSEUM is organized by the non-profit association ‘Freunde des Archäologischen Landesmuseums Brandenburg e.V. (FALB)’ on behalf of and in cooperation with the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM). The venue is the impressive, over 700-year-old Paulikloster in Brandenburg an der Havel, which houses the Archaeological State Museum. The Brandenburg State Archaeological Museum was officially opened in the Paulikloster in 2008. The State Museum is an institution of the Brandenburg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeological State Museum.