How can i help? Collections moves as collective practice

In April 2025, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) in Cambridge completed the largest and most complex collections project the Museum has undertaken in a generation, and possibly ever: the relocation of all collections in o!-site stores to a new facility. Over six years, a dedicated team, with support from collections managers and curators, put in more than 14,000 days of work into inventory, documentation, condition-checking, hazard- assessing, photographing, packing and moving over 300,000 objects to MAA’s Centre for Material Culture (CMC), in a newly converted nuclear bunker close to the centre of Cambridge (Figure 1). The results have been an extraordinary transformation in the physical and digital accessibility of the collections. 317,528 objects have been cared for, re- catalogued and moved, 91,858 catalogue records created or updated, 116,201 new images of objects created and loaded to MAA’s online catalogue, meaning 65% of catalogue records now have images attached. However, what these figures do not illustrate, and what seems especially pertinent to the theme of this volume, is the extent to which the project has been transformative and revelatory of our practice as museum professionals. In particular, it has revealed (and tested) the collective and collaborative qualities of collections work.