So Much Art, So Few Places To Stick It

Much has been made in recent years about the sudden emergence of architects as artistic superstars, and many in the art world have begun to question whether museums are focusing on their facades to the detriment of their collections. But even with all the new construction going on across North America, “most United States museums have only about 5% of their permanent collections on display” at any given time. And the crunch goes beyond gallery space to issues of storage: after all, how a museum preserves the art it isn’t displaying is just as important as how it presents art to the public, but raising money for storage facilities just doesn’t have the allure of getting one’s name on a new building.