In this museum space, the objects are yours to touch
By Leah Dolan, CNN
Updated: 1:11 PM EDT, Wed May 28, 2025
Source: CNN
From 31 May, one of the world’s largest art and design museums is
offering the public not just a rare peek behind the curtain, but a
chance for visitors to poke about, see up close — and touch — historical
and culturally significant pieces.
The V&A Storehouse East — a new museum-grade storage facility turned
exhibition and research space in London — is a project over 10 years in
the making, and one that aims to reframe the traditional museum experience.
Spread across four mighty floors (though only three are accessible to
the public), there are over 250,000 objects, ranging from Roman frescoes
and an early 14^th century Simone Martini painting to avant-garde
fashion and couture from the likes of Schiaparelli, Comme des Garçons
and Vivienne Westwood. The open access offered to visitors turns museum
conventions on its head, where works on display are usually roped off,
guarded and therefore only admired from a distance.
“This is real back-of-house museum work,” said the V&A East Storehouse’s
senior curator Georgina Haseldine, standing in front of rows and rows of
priceless objects — from paintings by Margaret Sarah Carpenter to 18th
century hunting swords — ahead of its public opening. “We want visitors
to learn what a collection is, how we store it… How colleagues work
across the museum, from conservators to the technical service team.”
Designed by American interdisciplinary design studio Diller Scofidio +
Renfro, the space includes a central hall reaching 20 meters high. From
all directions, rows of metal shelves housing furniture, artworks,
mannequins and more stretch outwards. Here, visitors can peer up or down
from the upper floors. With so much to see, it is easy to feel engulfed
by the sheer volume of items in possession.
“On average, only 3% of a museum’s collection is on display at any given
time,” estimated Diller Scofidio + Renfro co-founding partner Elizabeth
Diller at the Storehouse’s opening. “The other 97% is hidden away in the
basement, or off-site in a warehouse. As museums accumulate more and
more collections, the proportion of works on display is just going to
diminish over time unless we build new wings to accommodate more stuff.”
For the V&A, thousands of artefacts previously relegated to deep storage
are now finally seeing the light — with some works, as is the case with
the awe-inspiring Altamira ceiling (a gilded softwood ceiling
originating from Toledo, Spain and dating back to the late 15th
century), they are being seen for the first time indecades
<https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O297196/the-altamira-ceiling-ceiling-unknown/>.
Similarly, the dazzling 10-meter-high recreation of Picasso’s “Two Women
Running along the Beach (The Race) (1922)” painted by Prince Alexander
Sharvashidze is being shown for the first time in over 10 years. The
front cloth, used by a travelling ballet company in 1924, was even
signed by Picasso himself.
The result is akin to a big, artisanal IKEA (unmissable is the pleasant
smell of wood, likely emanating from one of the many ancient chest of
drawers — the oldest dating back to 1410) or in the eyes of Diller, a
cabinet of curiosities. “The V&A’s collection is eccentric in the first
place,” she said. “Where else would you encounter suits of armors, stage
cloths, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, thimbles,
chandeliers, motorcycles next to each other?”
Instead of alphabetising, or organizing based on strict chronology,
Diller decided to “lean into the delirium” — placing items that spanned
across medium, time periods and geographical location right next to one
another. “It’s a 16th century form of display,” she explained. “Which
was more for private collections, but (they) also would put delirious
things together.”
As expected, lifting the menagerie of items right off the shelf is
prohibited — this is not actually an IKEA, after all — but touching,
surprisingly, is not entirely off-limits. Visitors keen to hold a
centuries-old shoe in their own hands need only take the time to log on
and book a slot at the Storehouse’s on-site Research Center . There,
invigilators and conservationists are on-hand to teach the public how to
properly handle culturally significant works.
The online booking portal has been open since 13 May, with the V&A
already reportedly receiving requests from curious members of the
public, ranging from avid researchers to brides-to-be looking for
wedding dress inspiration. So far, the most requested item is a fuchsia
1957 Cristobal Balenciaga gown. Laid out in the Research Center, the
frock’s silk taffeta looks almost iridescent up close.
Breathing near it feels inconsiderate — but Kate Parsons, director of
conservation, collections care and access at the V&A, reassured there is
climate control across the facility, keeping the Storehouse at between
16 and 25 degrees centigrade and 40-60% humidity, as per international
standards, along with a variety of methods that tie down or secure items
to the viewing table.
Still, is she nervous about putting these invaluable items in the hands
of the public? “No. Not at all,” she told CNN. “We’ve thought very
carefully about the robustness of the object.”
“These collections belong to the public. And it’s just incredible that
we can enable access.”
See Full Web Article
<https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/28/style/va-east-storehouse-museum-london>
Go to the full CNN experience <https://www.cnn.com/>
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