Keith Moon's drum kit, a child's rocking horse, a Vivienne Westwood gown, buddhas, a slice of a '70s housing estate, the David Bowie archive: it's no wonder the Victoria and Albert's brand new East London storage facility is being dubbed the 'Museum of Absolutely Everything'. Or, alternately, "Britain's national collection of prized clutter'.
The reason? In a radical rethink of public storage they've designed a gigantic storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to be fully open to the public. The V&A holds over 4.5 million objects. But, like our own national museum, it has faced criticism for not having enough of its collection on public display. That is, until now
Opened on May 31, the V&A East Storehouse sees the public able to wander miles of shelves over multiple levels. It has been designed by the firm behind New York's High Line Park: Diller, Scofindo and Renfro.
In what is believed to be a world first there is also an online Order an Object service. Anyone can make an appointment to view, for free, up to five items from the collection, seven days a week, 363 days of the year.
The V&A management has a strong New Zealand connection. The Head of Collections Access is Nyssa Mildwaters who before April 2023 was as Conservation manager at Otago Museum for eight years.
Nyssa joined Culture 101's Mark Amery from London.
