Pink Palace Response

Museum mission statements provide the basis for the objectives and functions of a museum. According to Mister Brister, the mission statement of the Pink Palace Museum is to collect and preserve objects related to the history and culture of Memphis and the surrounding region, and to exhibit these objects in a way which best serves the education of the local public. The extensive nature of the mission statement allows the Pink Palace Museum to collect, preserve, and exhibit objects related to natural history, history, art, commerce, and entertainment of the region. Since the Pink Palace Museum must adhere to its mission statement, it must often turn away potential objects from donors that do not relate to the specifics of the mission statement. Mister Brister emphasized this as a priority of the Pink Palace Museum.
In addition, Mister Brister seemed to be in charge of enforcing the mission statement and evaluating potential risks. The Pink Palace Museum has many strategies to prevent damage to objects following the guidelines stated in ICOM, such as special cabinets that keep out light and pests, humidity and temperature control, and theft protection. Mister Brister emphasized the best strategy for dealing with pests is a preventative approach. Additionally, the Pink Palace Museum regularly sprays for pests. Mister Brister also highlighted the difficulty in keeping constant temperature and humidity in a city as perpetually hot and humid as Memphis. Similarly, the urban environment of Memphis presents the Pink Palace Museum with pollution problems that have to be dealt with by conservation and prevention strategies, although Mister Brister did not mention this specifically. Not only does the Pink Palace Museum stress the importance of object preservation, but it also allocates a large amount of its funding to theft protection. Although the ICOM focuses on the external threats such as nighttime burglary, Mister Brister mentioned that the biggest theft threat to the Pink Palace Museum is from internal sources such as independent contractors and construction workers.
As a principal part of the mission statement, preservation at the Pink Palace Museum takes precedence. The Pink Palace Museum appeared to incorporate successful strategies in storage, cleanliness, and organization of objects in accordance with ICOM. In fact, the storage facilities at the Pink Palace Museum were much more pristine and exact according to the ICOM than I expected after completing the readings. The Pink Palace Museum also has special conservation rooms and employs an expert conservator. The goal of the Pink Palace Museum is to use sustainable methods that can be adapted to future conservation technologies without permanently damaging the objects. In its entirety the Pink Palace Museum and the Collections Curator, Mister Brister, appeared to diligently follow the standards set forth by the ICOM to the best of their abilities considering their limited resources, budget, and external forces such as weather and pollution.