A New Solution for Displaying Storing Museum Artwork

visible art racks to display the museum's historical collectionVisible art racks are an engineered-to-order (ETO) solution that was created for a historical art museum’s research center in San Antonio, Texas. The museum was launching a major expansion project that would add over 60,000 square feet to its overall campus, and part of the renovation project included renovating the museum’s research center. To do something new and totally unexpected, the museum wanted to adopt an open concept and visible format of storing artwork.

This innovative concept would accentuate the importance of the museum’s collections to the public while also providing permanent storage for thousands of museum artifacts collected over 80 years. To help fulfill the museum’s unique goals, Southwest Solutions Group’s Jeff Rosaasen collaborated with Spacesaver® Corporation to engineer a brand new product: visible art racks.

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open area for museum collection storage with eto art racks

How the San Antonio Museum Used the Visible Art Racks

These special steel art racks with punched screens were designed to be conveniently pulled out and pushed back in. Each pullout art rack has a rail in the floor to support the loading and an overhead strut channel to provide vertical stability and guidance for the rack. Rollers were mounted on the top of the art rack frame to allow for smooth and easy movement while using (pulling out) the art rack.

The visible art racks gave the second floor gallery of the research center the capability to store every piece of framed art not already on display elsewhere on the museum campus. The use of an in-floor rail for each of the art racks ensured sturdiness and reliability in storing the framed art. The art racks provide easy back and forth movement, allowing different framed art pieces to be conveniently viewed.

installing eto visible art racks to display and store artwork

The visible format of this solution was a unique and key feature, allowing the stored artwork to be open and visibly accessible to the public. The ability for the public to constantly view stored collection items, and have access to some of these artifacts for the first time sets this historical museum apart from other museums. 

Contact Us for Visible Art Racks at Your Museum

Southwest Solutions Group® provides design and installation services for all types of museum storage solutions including visible art racks. We will even provide a free consultation to determine your exact needs before the design process begins. To learn more or to speak with a specialist, call us at 1-800-803-1083 or send us a message today.

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