The process of moving a museum — collections, offices, and equipment some of which weigh thousands of pounds — is no simple task. Moving The Printing Museum was a once in a generation opportunity to take a long, hard look at our programs, facilities, and collections to determine how best to use all three to advance our mission to ignite creativity, foster hands-on self-expression, and champion history and power of print.

This started with a strategic planning process in 2019. Embracing the artist community and relocating the museum became the two major objectives. If the golden rule of real estate is location, location, location, our building on West Clay Street was not ideal. Too big, too many galleries, and outside of a cultural district. Many visitors, some life-long residents of Houston, were surprised to learn we’ve been around for nearly 40 years. We’ve also amassed a collection of seldom seem presses, tools, and equipment way too far gone to be restored or exhibited. Consequently, the staff began the process of finding new homes for some of these items.

After we closed to the public on May 28, a team of staff, volunteers, and vendors set about packing and moving the museum into temporary storage. Highlights include:

• 15,000+ cubic feet of collection artifacts, volumes, studio and office equipment packed, crated, and moved into
• 11 storage units
• $33,000 generated during 2 surplus sale events (90% earmarked for collection care)
• 4 interns and 31 volunteers contributed over 800 man-hours to help catalog, pack, crate, and move nearly 10,000 objects and artifacts
• 14 movers wielding 2 forklifts, 2 16-foot box trucks, 1 flatbed trailer, 4 pallet jacks.

A special thank you to Able Machinery Movers who has helped the museum move presses and heavy equipment for two decades.

---