Most museums show just 3% of what they own. All the rest sits hidden in vast storage facilities, seen only by curators and conservators. The V&A museum in London wants to change that.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, known as the V&A, is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts, and design. The museum was founded over 150 years ago, but is keen on staying innovative. They’ve recently opened a new storehouse housing over a half a million items (artifacts, books, costumes, etc). In this new center, you can walk by a bunch of objects you would have never seen, without any barriers. But the best part is you can actually “order” objects.
Just request it two weeks ahead, and the museum will bring the piece to a private room. Conservators meet you there, hand you purple gloves, and teach you how to handle the object with your own hands. You can request everything from 1950s Balenciaga gowns to Roman coins and Egyptian jewelry.
“We’ve tried to move away from carefully moderated, visible storage to something that is a genuinely self-guided experience, based on the back-of-house world of the museum. The barriers are low — physically and metaphorically. It’s free to access any day of the year and you don’t need to book as you do for other storage facilities,” the museum says in a statement.
A New Way to Do Museums
Museums, as we know them today, have been around for centuries, but they’ve always been associated with academia and the preservation of rare items. Even as museums opened up to the public more and more, you only ever get to see the tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of museums have way bigger collections that are rarely or never displayed.
The V&A is no exception. The museum has 2.8 million items, out of which only about 300,000 are considered viable for long-term gallery display. This is where the East Storehouse comes in.
The gallery is nestled in a complex that was used to host the 2012 London Olympics. From the outside, it looks like any other warehouse. Inside, it feels like a reimagined cabinet of curiosities — a layered, looping space where visitors wander past shelves packed with objects from 5,000 years of human creativity.
Nothing is organized by theme, region, or time period. A Roman fresco might sit beside a Chopper bike. A medieval Spanish ceiling hovers above a Brutalist concrete panel from London’s now-demolished Robin Hood Gardens. It’s deliberately chaotic, designed to provoke curiosity and to make visitors design their own experience.
Simply put, it just doesn’t look like a museum, says Senior curator Georgia Haseldine.
“Objects are not going to be displayed beautifully on the plinth like you might see in an exhibition,” she said. “Instead, they’re going to be on pallets. You’ll find a pack of some shoes that will be nestled into some tissue paper, you might see Alexander McQueen dress, but it’s going to be wrapped in a material that keeps out light.”
The Storehouse also lets visitors watch conservators work through floor-to-ceiling glass panels, browse over 100 curated “mini-displays” set into the shelving, and explore spaces designed for performances, talks, and workshops.
Ordering Exhibits
The most exciting part of the new approach, however, is the fact that you can actually get to hold objects.
Just request it two weeks ahead, and the museum will bring the piece to a private room. Conservators meet you there, hand you purple gloves, and teach you how to handle the object.
“Before your appointment, your objects will be assessed. This includes looking at their fragility, any hazards or security requirements and if they are safe to handle,” the museum’s order page explains.
The service is open to everyone, from artists and students to scientists and even brides looking for dress inspiration. One visitor even booked an object for their birthday.
“Any reason to view the collection is a good reason,” Kate Parsons, director of conservation, collections care and access, tells W magazine.
Bringing Collections Closer Than Ever
But why do this in the first place, isn’t it risky? Well, we’ve been doing museums a bit wrong, the V&A managers believe. The purpose of museums isn’t just to showcase remarkable collections; it’s also to bring people closer to them. Traditionally, institutions must choose between display and storage. This is something in between — a living hybrid.
“The most important role of the V&A is to safeguard our collections. One of the ways you do that over the long term is to bring the public closer to their national collections. The more you do that, their understanding of what goes into managing a collection grows, as well as their appreciation of it.”
The museum was also set up in one of the UK’s most culturally rich yet underserved neighborhoods, areas that are teeming with creativity, but often left out of national museum maps.
