Curating convergence: interpreting museum objects in integrated collecting institutions
This article is concerned with the phenomenon of convergence (institutional integration) of museums, libraries, archives and other cultural facilities. It investigates how such amalgamations impact the capacity of curatorial and collections staff to carry out interpretive practices, including object research, documentation and exhibition development. Through thematic content analysis of staff interviews conducted at five case studies of local government run converged collecting institutions in Australia and New Zealand, the paper suggests that administrative restructuring often predicated on the dual imperatives of financial efficiency and improved cultural provision produces institutional frameworks that undermine the capacity of collections staff to interrogate the meanings of objects. In turn, impediments to interpretive practice limit the extent to which collections are rendered intellectually accessible to visitors.