A museum normally houses a core collection of important selected objects in its field.

That is why so many museums have at their core collections assembled by individuals.

These in turn became the core collection of the museum he founded and named in his wife's memory.

The museum did not begin to acquire American folk art until the 1940's, when the gifts of a most unlikely couple formed the core collection.

The museum has three floors of galleries where a core collection is displayed along with feature exhibitions.

Its core collection of some 1700 works is owned by the Nelimarkka Foundation.

A key, he said, was to determine how large a core collection was needed for ready reference and "browsability."

The Mechanic Association's 20,000 books formed the core collection.

The first task, Ms. Brown said, will be the development of a core collection that will come from private collectors.

That core collection will be expanded into a major retrospective of Ms. Bourgeois's works completed since 1984.