Collections Management

About TMA’s Collection

The works of art in the TMA collection are conserved for the benefit of our community, and the museum makes careful decisions regarding the acquisition of each work that we steward. When evaluating the appropriateness of a work of art for the museum, TMA considers such issues as the ownership history of an object as well as its history of exhibition and publication. To learn more about TMA’s collecting policies, click here.

All collecting at TMA is guided by the museum’s Collecting Plan, which articulates the values that guide the museum’s collecting of art, including the work’s relevance to the community; its suitability for educational initiatives; its potential for audience development; and its relationship to IDEA principles of relevancy, community, respect, and multivocality. For more information about the museum’s IDEA Plan, click here

This includes the following objectives:
• To define the areas where the museum will focus its efforts in acquisitions and gifts utilizing the following criteria: scope and current state of the collection; relevance to the community and to the mission of the museum; audience engagement; and future development.
• To act as a general guideline and framework for collecting that should be implemented with flexibility to allow the museum to remain accessible and responsive to opportunities that may arise.
• To provide tools to refine the existing collection.
• To inform the implementation of the Collections Management Policy, a document that provides guidelines for the administration and care of the collections.