Museum Storage is Not an Icebox: Re-examining Textile Storage at the RISD Museum

Abstract

Using the Costume and Textiles Department of the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) as a case study, this article examines the history and current practices of collections-based work and care through the lens of Andy Warhol’s seminal museum-artist intervention exhibition, Raid the Icebox I. The study demonstrates the crucial need for museums to introduce empathic and transparent ways of working in storage, as well as engaging audiences with collections not on view in exhibition galleries.

Authored by RISD Museum curatorial and conservation staff, the case study hinges on the idea that museum storage facilities are not static places, but rather living, constantly-changing organic spaces that receive and require active care and attention. They are places that are filled with activity and in continual flux—always in a state of becoming, especially as mistakes, flaws, and historical biases are faced and confronted.

Keywords:

• collections care
• empathic storage
• living collections
• teaching collections
• case study

Notes

1 For discussion of the legacy of the Cooper Union, where RISD curator Berliner worked prior to joining RISD, see: https://blogs.cul. columbia.edu/schapiro/2009/06/24/save-the-cooper-union-museum-a-case-study-in-deaccesioning/ [Accessed 2 December 2020].

2 Warumungu elder Michael Jampin Jones chose Mukurtu as the name for the community archive to remind users that the archive, too, is a safekeeping place where Warumungu people can share stories, knowledge and cultural materials properly, using their own protocols. Growing from this community need, Mukurtu CMS is now an open-source platform flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse communities who want to manage and share their digital cultural heritage in their own ways and on their own terms. See https://mukurtu.org [Accessed 11 May 2021]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laurie Anne Brewer

Laurie Anne Brewer is Associate Curator at the RISD Museum. Her recent exhibitions include The Art and Design of Spider Silk (2019); Beauty at Her Fingertips: Chinese Sleeve Bands from the Aldrich Collection (2017); and Luminous Lace: Metallic Trims 1500 – Now (2016). At RISD, Laurie is also a lecturer in the departments of Art History (History of Textiles) and Apparel (Uses of Animals: 1850 – Now). Prior to RISD she worked in the department of Textiles at MFIT. Brewer earned an MA in Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles from State University of New York, Fashion Institute of Technology and her BA in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic.

Tayana Fincher

Tayana Fincher is the former Nancy Prophet Fellow in the Department of Costume and Textiles at the RISD Museum. She curated It Comes in Many Forms: Islamic Art from the Collection (2020 – 2021), which highlights the pluralism of Muslim artists, makers and Islamic subjects across time and geography. Some recent projects include articles for the museum’s publication Manual and a biennial Textile Society of America symposium. She received her BA in Art History and History from Williams College, and previously held internships at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Aga Khan Museum.

Kate Irvin

Kate Irvin is Curator and Department Head of Costume and Textiles at the RISD Museum. Recent projects include: Repair and Design Futures (2019), a multidisciplinary exhibition and programming initiative investigating mending as material intervention, metaphor, and call to action; From the Loom of a Goddess: Reverberations of Guatemalan Maya Weaving (2018); Designing Traditions: Student Explorations in the Asian Textile Collections (2017); and All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion (2016). She holds an MS in Textiles with a concentration in Curation from the University of Rhode Island and a BA in Architectural History and Literature & Society from Brown University.

Anna Rose Keefe

Anna Rose Keefe is a textile conservation assistant at the RISD Museum. Her work focuses on the ongoing care of the collection. She co-teaches Introduction to Textile Conservation with Jessica Urick and is an active member of the American Institute for Conservation. She holds an MS in Textiles with a concentration in Conservation from the University of Rhode Island, and a BA in Material Culture from Mount Holyoke College. In addition to her conservation duties, Anna Rose recently curated the show Lost in the Museum (2018 – 2019) at the RISD Museum, highlighting research into objects found in the collection.

Jessica Urick

Jessica Urick is the textile conservator for the RISD Museum, where she oversees the conservation, care and handling of over 35,000 costume and textile objects. She holds an MS in Textiles with a concentration in Conservation from the University of Rhode Island and a BA in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware. She is a member of the American Institute for Conservation, currently serving as a postprints editor for the Textile Specialty Group. Before joining the RISD staff, she worked as a textile conservator for the Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, Rhode Island.