Udstillingsdrevet indsamling af møbler på Trapholt

Abstract

At Trapholt, Museum of Modern Art and Design in Kolding, Denmark, research focus and museum activities – as at many other museums – are largely aimed at the audience and the public. This has led to a collecting practice predominantly driven by Trapholt’s exhibitions. The focus of this article is to study the gains and consequences of an exhibition-driven collecting practice, and discuss the potential opportunities for a strategy going forward. Through three exhibition cases, it is pointed out how this practice has secured a unique selection of historical design objects, as well as examples of contemporary design, but also caused overrepresentation, duplicates and accumulations of certain period pieces, without sufficient or significant documentation. At the same time, this practice is at the expense of research in the remaining collection. This article argues for a greater degree of systematization, broader documentation as well as a structural change to the collection practice involving participation.