Collecting the crafts at Shipley

This chapter was based on a very detailed analysis of the purchasing policies at Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead using the very complete records kept by curators, including correspondence with makers and galleries and funding organisations like the Contemporary Arts Society and Northern Arts. The research sought to distance itself from the majority of collection-based catalogue essays and to provide a dispassionate analysis of Shipley's collecting policies. It was based on detailed analysis of the collecting policy at Shipley. The essay used theoretical writing connected with collecting and the so-called 'new museology' noting the fragile intellectual coherence of the museum collection and arguing it is sustained only through constant interactions between curators, critics, visitors and artists. An expanded version of this essay was given at the British Museum/Kingston University 'Collecting Now' conference (2003 ).