London museum opens vast 'on-demand' storehouse to public
Imagine being able to visit a museum and examine up close thousand-year-old pottery, revel alone in jewellery from centuries past, or peer inside a Versace bag.
Now London's V&A has launched a revolutionary new exhibition space, where visitors can choose from some 250,000 objects, order something they want to spend time looking at, and have it delivered to a room for a private viewing.
Most museums have thousands of precious and historic items hidden away in their stores, which the public never gets to see or enjoy.
But the V&A Storehouse, which opened on May 31 in a specially converted warehouse, has come up with a radical new concept. And it is totally free.
"Museums should be and are for everybody ... the V&A's collection is for everybody. It belongs to everybody, and everyone should be able to have free, equitable, and meaningful access to it," said senior curator Georgia Haseldine.
"So this is a world first, never has anyone been able to be invited freely, without having to book into the same space as a national collection, on this scale."
One fifth of the museum's total collection is now available to be viewed and enjoyed in the four-storey building on the former site of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
- No protective glass -
"It's fantastic, it's so much better than an ordinary museum," enthused retired physics teacher Jane Bailey as she toured the floors.
"I'm just really, really impressed by it. We've only just heard about it, but it's phenomenal."
She was transfixed by the sight of the black and red drum kit which belonged to Keith Moon, from the band The Who, saying it would be great to be able to resuscitate the legendary drummer who died in 1978, to play a set for them.
Jostling for space, side-by-side on shelves in a massive hanger which resembles a DIY commercial warehouse and stretches for more than 30 basketball courts, are everything from ceramics and tapestries, to paintings and toys from the Tudor period.
There is even the whole 15th-century gilded wooden ceiling from the now-lost Torrijos Palace, and the Kaufmann Office, a panelled room which is the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside of the United States.
Hanging on display is the stunning stage front cloth made for "Le Train Bleu" - a copy of a Pablo Picasso painting it was specially designed for the 1924 Ballets Russes production. At 12 metres, its huge size means it has rarely been seen since its stage debut.
There is no protective glass.
One of the first visitors to the Storehouse was Princess Catherine, a patron of the V&A and keen art lover, who took a tour on Tuesday.
She described the collection as "eclectic" as she used the "order an object" system to look at a samples book from renowned 19th century English textiles designer William Morris as well as rolls of ornate textiles and a musical instrument.
All the works are available to the public seven days a week, and can be reserved via an online booking system for a private viewing at a date and time of your choice.
Members of staff are on hand paying close attention as visitors don purple gloves and satisfy their curiosity, spending time with the object of their choice.
- 'Love letter' -
It's a huge departure from the usual admonishment of "Don't touch!" found in most museums seeking to protect their objects from damage.
Curator Haseldine acknowledged "we have certainly met with some levels of scepticism and worry".
But she said once the idea was explained properly including "how meaningful it is to ... start to open up and give collections back to a community ...people just start to think creatively about how we can do this".
American national Manuel Garza living in London said he thought the V&A Storehouse was "one of the most interesting spaces that just opened up here in London".
Haseldine said "this building is a love letter to objects".
"To be able to see around the back of an object, to be able to look inside a dress, to be able to see the bottom of a pot, all these things are how we really learn about our material culture," she added.
Expert Kate Hill, who teaches cultural history at Lincoln University, said "it's pretty unusual for museums to open up their storehouses".
"Most of the time they offer some 'behind the scene' tour, but their objets are not accessible. It's visible but not accessible."
Visitor Jane Bailey said: "I would hope that this is the museum of the future, because some are very, very stuffy. We went to one recently and it was excruciating."
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