Ok – I have struggled with this post as I don’t want to cause a tidal wave of anxious emails.  But while we were at the V&A and talking with the curators, we learned that there will be some changes to the storage and display of the textiles at the V&A and felt that the needlework public should be aware.  Before I divulge the changes, let me give you some background.

The configuration of the textiles in storage and the rooms themselves at the V&A have long made it nearly impossible for pieces in storage to be viewed by researchers or interested parties.  The V&A has what could be known as a perfect storm of storage issues, building and room layout problems, and staff limitations which are combined with a deluge of requests since their collection is so vast and important.  Among researchers, it is well known how HARD it is to see anything.  You often need to reserve a spot as much as 8-12 months in advance – IF you can get one.  The most common question other curators have asked me in the last year was “HOW DID YOU GET A GROUP INTO THE V&A?”.  The answer – it was VERY, VERY hard and the entire tour was built around that one day.

As those on the tour will note, there are many ways pieces can be seen, but in all manners there are a few issues that have to be dealt with by the caretakers.  First, the pieces need to be stored well.  Second, there need to be tables with adequate light and room to view a piece without it being abraded or handled.  The size of the tables and rooms limit the number of people who can see an object(s).  Then the location of the rooms for viewing are often in areas that are accessible to other sensitive areas of the museum.  Depending on that, it might take more than one individual to bring you in and also watch the objects at the same time for security of the museum/objects/etc.  There is often paperwork.  Papers with signatures in the object’s storage location to show who moved it, etc.  There must be a trail so the object can’t go missing.

Having seen many situations that museums deal with, I understand the complexity of the problem.  Often museums are in old buildings and these objects need to be in low light and humidity controlled rooms.  So the storage may be several floors below the secure viewing area for visitors as there are no tables in the storage rooms.  And it is a risk to allow many people into a storage room, depending on the room.  Some have open shelves and bumping the shelf would cause potential harm.  But moving an object in an old museum often presents numerous issues.  You can’t just walk down a hallway carrying a jacket on a form or an embroidered casket in your hands.  So a cart is needed.  Then you run into tons of problems with the old buildings – stairs or bumps where the cart can’t go over.  I have been in one place where there are little lifts installed in those places to get the cart – not people – over the bumps.  That is expensive!  So moving the object may take over a half an hour or more – the route to the room down the hall might actually take you around the entire museum.  Then it has to be secured while the next object is moved, etc.  So the set up and take down for a visitor can be a few hours for more than one person, depending on the situation.  And the curators have other things on their plate – so each visit can take almost a day off their schedule, even though the visit on your side may have only been about 2 hours.

To add to this, museums have continually been acquiring objects as well as improving the storage situations for them.  This always means more space for each object.  Think better storage cabinets, conservation boxes, humidity control systems, etc.  All require more space.  But the buildings aren’t getting bigger.  This has led to large objects often being held off-site in auxiliary storage buildings.  Almost always secret buildings.  When we were starting the Plimoth project, we learned that the lovely daffodil jacket they had was in the secret off-site storage.  We almost had to be blindfolded to go there to see it – as getting it back to the museum for a short visit was soooo hard (Do you remember the transport of the Plimoth Jacket to Winterthur – fine art transport is COMPLICATED).

The Museum of Fashion in Bath has the best situation I know of.  They have a viewing room below storage and a system of lockers outside the door for your things.  The room is well lit and it shares space with three individuals’ offices.  That helps with the monitoring.  They can be working while you are looking.  There is a collections manager whose job includes being there for visits.  Since her office is in the room, she can multi-task.  Thus, while appointments are set and limited, it is realistic to schedule an time to see something for your work as the accommodations are setup to make it take less museum resources for a visit.

So this leads me to the V&A again.  There has been an off-site location for storage of the textile collection that has been in use for awhile, especially for larger objects.  It is up to modern storage guidelines and is well lit as well for viewing.  The configuration of the building will allow greater access to the pieces in storage with much lower museum staff resources being needed to allow access.  The current plan is to transfer the collection there to allow for a much improved ability to let people work with the collection.  But this includes all of the collection.  The public textile study rooms as well.  To facilitate the transition of these some 50,000 plus objects, the collection will be closed to study and all visits for about two years.  I think all of us in the room almost fainted and choked back tears.

The current plan (subject to change) is to shut the public textile study rooms in the next few months for take down and transport.  I only post this to save someone from visiting and being very, very disappointed.  IF you plan on visiting the V&A in the future – call the information line and ask if the textile study rooms are still open or if they are closed.  It will save you heartache.

The curators we were meeting with were not able to answer our questions on how easy it will be to see pieces once they reopen on a walk-in basis as they are not the Textile staff who are planning the details.  They do know that the situation for textiles will be vastly improved in general for access to all pieces.  My question to them was – WHAT CAN WE DO to ensure that the idea of public walk-in access is preserved in the new configuration.  I don’t have an answer to that yet – but I am still pushing on it.  Curator Edwina Ehrman is heading up the move (called Future Plan I)and has put me in contact with the development person at the V&A to look for opportunities and mechanisms to raise money for the effort.  They know that the public, walk-in rooms are very, very important to the textile community.  I think our job is to find out what resources they need to make sure that this is maintained and get them the resources.

I’ll keep you updated and as soon as a call to action is appropriate – I’ll let you know.  Meanwhile, below is an excerpt on the plan and closure provided by the V&A.  It gives dates so that anyone making plans can scoot to London to see something in time.

Tricia

Important Changes to Access to the Textiles and Fashion Collection at the V&A in 2011

The V&A is building a new Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation Centre at Blythe House in Kensington Olympia which will open in late summer 2013. Following a generous lead grant from the Clothworkers’ Foundation it will be called The Clothworkers’ Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation. The development will include a spacious public study room for appointments, a seminar room and new, up-to-date storage for our outstanding collection of textiles and fashion.

The museum’s textiles and fashion collection numbers some 104,000 individual pieces and because of its size we have to begin packing the collection for the move to Blythe House in March 2011. This will result in the closure of galleries and stores, and a suspension of appointments.

SUSPENSION OF APPOINTMENTS

The textiles and fashion collection is curated by the Furniture, Textile and Fashion Department and the Asian Department.

We regret that from 01 March 2011 the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department cannot offer any appointments to study textiles or fashion. No Asian textiles will be accessible for appointments from 01 October 2011. We hope to resume our normal service in the new Clothworkers’ Centre at Blythe House in October 2013.

GALLERY CLOSURES

The Textiles Study Room (Room 100). From 01 February 2011 access to some of the study frames will be limited. The Study Room will close on 01 March 2011.

The Carpet Gallery (Room 97) will

close on 01 May 2011.

The remaining Textile Galleries (Rooms 95-9) will close on 31 October. However there will be limited access to some of the displays in Room 99 from 01 October.

The Fashion Gallery (Room 40) is currently shut having closed on 15 November 2010 for architectural restoration. It will re-open as a two-storey gallery in late Spring 2012.

We realise that this will be disruptive to your studies but please note that  there are displays of textiles and fashion in the Tapestry Gallery, Medieval Galleries, British Galleries, the 20^th Century Gallery, the Theatre and Performance Gallery, the Asian Galleries and the Recent Acquisitions Gallery.

During the period of refurbishment the V&A will hold two exciting textiles and fashion exhibitions – Imperial Chinese Robes from the Forbidden City (7 Dec 2010 – 27 Feb 2011), which will present for the first time in Europe the magnificent robes worn by the emperors and empresses of the Qing Dynasty; and Yohji Yamamoto (12 March – 11 July 2011), an installation based retrospective, which will be the designer’s first solo exhibition in the UK.

The V&A’s major exhibitions for 2011, The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 (2 April – 17 July 2011) and Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 (24 Sep 2011 – 8 Jan 2012) both include sections on fashion.

The V&A’s Textiles and Fashion collections and the Asian textiles collection can also be accessed online through Search the Collections, where images and detailed information about many of the individual objects can be found. More object information entries and photographs are already being added as a result of a cataloguing project that is part of the Clothworkers’ Centre development.

For information about further resources and other British collections of fashion and textiles, please visit the V&A website: http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/resources/index.html