Collection Registration

Come behind the scenes at Powerhouse Castle Hill and meet some of the people documenting and caring for the Powerhouse Collection.

Registrars at Powerhouse manage the documentation for the museum's collection and make sure objects in the collection are preserved and can be accessed safely. The maintain the collection management system, an important database to support collection administration for acquisitions, exhibitions, storage, loans, logistics and the archives. It holds records of each object’s legal title, history and location, along with related knowledge such as research materials and information about storage and transport requirements.

Registration Manager

‘I come from an art and history background, which has fed my passion for cultural collections. So for me, working in registration at a museum combines that love of the objects with documenting, organising and caring for them. We're also risk managers and facilitators: we make sure objects are preserved and people can access the collection safely.

There isn’t one understanding of an object — there are layers — and so the more people engage with objects in the collection and share their stories, the more we learn about the collection too.

The other facet of collection management is the contractual and legal side. Once an acquisition or gift has been approved, we process the transfer of ownership to the museum, ensuring we have the legal title to the object, and then manage the logistics to bring the object in and have it safely looked after in the collection.