The collection in contemporary museums: ideal vs. practice

This article examines the position of collections in contemporary museums. It assumes that collections are significant and should constitute a central component in museum work. Specifically, a museum should be defined by what it does with its collection rather than simply by the fact that it owns one. Using a network theory perspective, this study analyses how three Danish cultural history museums work with their collections. It introduces four key actors: legislation, the contemporary museum, curators and the registration system, and identifies two critical nodes in the network surrounding the collection: the registration task and subsequent interpretation. The study demonstrates how certain processes and tensions compromise the collection’s central role, despite key actors’ interest in maintaining it.