The Mucem’s Centre for Conservation and Resources: Promoting Collections and Cultural Heritage Careers

Abstract

Abstract The Mucem has been registered as a national public institution in France since February 2013. It inherited the French holdings of the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro (1881) and the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires (created in 1937, opened in 1975, and closed in 2005). Its Centre for Conservation and Resources (CCR), located in Marseille’s Belle de Mai neighbourhood, was designed by the architectural firm Corinne Vezzoni and Associates. Housing one million objects and documents across 8,000 square metres of storage space (itself divided into 17 rooms), the CCR has four areas that are open to the public: a Viewing Room, a Reading Room, an Exhibition Room, and a 900-square-metre Storage Room. The CCR was designed not only with collection management in mind, but also to assist with mediation and promotion. Through an overview of the collections and the space in which they are housed, this article and case study reflects on the museum’s past seven years of operation.