This month Museums+Heritage Advisor reported on the storage at the V&A’s Clothworkers’ Centre
“The V&A’s Textile Conservation Department is one of the leaders in its field anywhere in the world and they now have suitably world-class facilities for the care, study and enjoyment of their outstanding collection. The new centre at Blythe House brings the V&A’s extensive textiles and fashion collection together under one roof for the first time, along with a spacious new public study room, seminar room, upgraded conservation studios and modern, custom-built storage offering visitors and researchers increased access and improved facilities to study and enjoy this important collection.”
Rackline offer a range of storage solutions for Museums. We work with each museum to build a custom solution.
“The modular storage system was custom-built by Rackline Ltd. to ensure the long-term preservation of the collection. It includes storage on mobile bases for 1,280 large rolled textiles from 1.5 to 5 metres long, with a similar quantity of static storage for smaller rolled textiles and wall-mounted storage for 6m long rolled textiles; 500 linear metres of storage for hanging garments and approximately the same quantity of shelving; and about 7,000 drawers in six different sizes. The drawers are 95% retractable. Three dimensional objects which require static storage are housed in conventional cupboards.
The storage was designed in close collaboration with the V&A to ensure it met the complex needs of the museum’s wide-ranging collection and was easily accessible to staff. To ensure that the custom-built storage matched the needs of the collection I was tasked with co-ordinating an audit of over 104,000 objects to determine what type of storage they would require. This involved weighing as well as measuring samples of the collection to enable us to meet the loading constraints at Blythe House. It was also important to assess the likely areas of expansion and to include the appropriate volume and storage types in the final calculations.”
To read the full review click here.
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