Curating A Business

WalterFilm is in the business of providing our clients, both private collectors and institutions, with the finest selection of original vintage movie posters, movie star photos, lobby cards, movie scripts & rare books and Hollywood movie memorabilia. We also deal in sub-specialties of theater and stage, African American cultural history and LGBTQ film, stage, art, and social history. In all instances, our objective is to search out and offer the most outstanding pieces we can find.

The Curatorial Process

The first thing to take into consideration when you’re curating a business is what is your objective? Are you searching for material to construct an archive, which will contain a number of pieces and will be marketed as single collection, or are you looking for individual items or items from a collection that can be sold individually?

Constructing An Archive

When putting together a body of work that will be sold as an archive, you need pieces that will support the point of view of that collection. This could include a range of material from unique, rare and valuable items (the “stars”) to items that may have minimum value but are important because of the information they provide or they fit into a mosaic of information and history that reflects the archive’s point of view.

LGBTQ Cultural History Collection

WalterFilm currently has on the market a substantial archive on LGBTQ film, stage, and music history, with 42 vintage scripts, 1200+ photos, and 45 press books, promotional books, and other ephemeral promotional items, making for more than 1300 pieces. This is being offered to institutional collectors such as universities, libraries and museums that have an interest in or department that has or is building an LGBTQ archive.

Securing Individual Pieces For Sale

While the cost of an item is important, what is equally, if not more important is the quality of the item being sold and its provenance (or history). The curatorial process WalterFilm goes through in evaluating a piece consists of Authentication and Evaluation and we provide our clients with a detailed description of every piece we sell.

• Authentication— Establishes a piece as a vintage original and not a reproduction, the date it was issued and any additional information it might possess.
• Evaluation— Involves our giving an accurate evaluation of the condition of the diverse materials we offer so that a prospective buyer has a very clear and accurate understanding of the condition of their potential purchase.

To understand the scope of what WalterFilm provides to collectors, please visit our website, WalterFilm.com, and enjoy exploring our extraordinary collections. And if you’re interested in collecting movie posters please check out this video.

WalterFilm published this post originally at: http://blog.walterfilm.com/curating-a-business/

It is republished with permission of the author.