The Future of Museums_ The New V_A Storehouse

Oh my goodness, just look behind me! This is like nothing I've ever seen before. I knew I was going to be excited but I really didn't expect to be this overwhelmed and gleeful. I'm Jessica, the museum guide, and today I'm doing something really unusual for my channel. I'm here at the Victoria and Albert Storehouse East. This is a brand new museum, kind of, that opened up in the last few weeks. I believe it was May 31st. I normally enter into the museums with a full set of research. Today, nothing. I'm coming in here just as blind as anybody else will. I've done no prior research because there's not really any to do. This is the storehouse. It's storing hundreds of thousands of individual objects and they've displayed them in a way that is completely revolutionary for a museum and that's no surprise. The Victoria and Albert has always been the vanguard for museum practices. They were even the first to ever have a cafe in their museum and here at this storehouse, as you can see behind me, this is all of their priceless collection that's not normally on display in their South Kensington Museum. Flipped inside out, we can see the guts of the storage and look at things that haven't been seen in decades, if not centuries. I really love the way that the entrance has been designed. So when you first start walking down this gangway, you can't actually see what's ahead of you. You can't see the large space. You can just start to see the shelves, which is like the most magical IKEA in the world. Oh, there's a version of this. I don't know if it's the same, but there's a version of this in the foyer of the actual Victoria and Albert. Wow. Okay, to say I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed would be an understatement. I've just walked in. This is my very first impression of the storehouse, but now I am just completely overwhelmed. It's only when you start to ascend another short flight of stairs that you start to see the entire storehouse open up in front of you. Just look at that. This is the Weston's Collection Hall. You've never seen a museum like this. The Victoria and Albert storehouse is located in an area of East London that's being kind of called Wick East, which is a little bit cheeky. They're referring to Hackney Wick, which is actually just over the canal. You can see the beautiful canals. Well, beautiful. The old industrial canals of Hackney Wick here. These have gentrified in the last couple of decades. And that's a whole video on its own. They've tried to rebrand this former Olympic sites as an arts hub and also lots of new flats. This is really the crowning glory in that new arts district. Right now, I'm looking at quite literally thousands of different objects. I mean, I'm just going to scroll down here. Look. But I'm just gazing at frames. I think this looks like Indonesian woodwork, Balinese woodwork. Look down here. There's some kind of an onyx or black stone Buddha. Furniture of all types. Oh my goodness. Mid-century, modern, Victorian, Georgian, Jacobian. I wasn't sure what I was going to do today. If I was going to try to film a video or just film little bits and pieces to do a more researched project for later on. But I think I'm going to just let you experience this at the same time I am. I only have about an hour. So let's see what we can do. I do know that there's a hundred kind of cutaway galleries, for lack of a better word, where they have arranged the objects in more of a traditional museum display. So let's go see if we can find some of those. So there are three different categories for the small kind of exhibits that they have, of which I mentioned there's about a hundred. There's yellow coated, which are collecting stories about the Victorian Albert's role as a national collector. There's the source book for design, which shows the way that this collection inspires artists. And the working museum, which teaches you about how the V&A operates. Of course, I'm always really fascinated. I mean, I'm fascinated by all of them, but I really love knowing how each museum operates. Over here, beautiful painting, British, maybe late 18th century French, that's a guess, showing kind of ruined old temples, chandeliers, sculptures. Oh, wow, look at this kind of Roman gladiator with the yellow cap. Oh, and the armor. Oh my goodness. There almost seems like there's no rhyme or reason of what's been placed together. Some beautiful paintings. Oh, here we go. I can actually see here. This is a portrait of a lady called Petrarch's Laura. Petrarch's Laura? Italian, an old copy of a late 15th century or early 16th century painting. Oh, and here's a lovely painting of a dog. All the way down. I mean, there's people just everywhere on every level. It's early June. September, something monumental is going to happen at this museum. The David Bowie archival collection is going to be on permanent display here for free. It's not on display now. That's because they didn't want to open this museum with its huge crowds of people. There's been queues around the blog at the same time as the Bowie collection because that will bring a whole different group of people who aren't just interested in the V&A. I will come back and do a dedicated video just on the David Bowie collection in September. I promise you I'll be here on day one. So you can see on my phone here, I've just scanned the QR code and it does say I can look up each item. Oh, and each case also has QR codes as well. Oh my goodness. You know, if I did try to make one of my typical videos about this collection, I think I would actually go insane. So I'm kind of glad that I'm removing the pressure, letting you just experience it like you would be if you were walking through. These are Yemeni funerary stelae for Basil, Twibxim and Zed. These were looted during the current conflict in Yemen and found their way into an East London design shop. They were recognized by an archaeology enthusiast and then recovered by the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit. And so the V&A are temporary caring for them until they can be safely returned to Yemen. And hopefully that is soon. Oh, wow. Here is a piece of contemporary art by Hugh Locke. He is a British contemporary artist. I went to see his exhibit called What Have We Here at the British Museum just a couple of months ago. Now one of the unique things you can do at this museum is look up in their catalogue for specific items that aren't normally on display. If you give them two weeks notice, you can ask to have that item brought out of the stacks and a curator will actually sit with you while you handle and learn more about it. You can really get up close and personal with things. You can see here a copy of Titian's Venus of Urbino by a British painter called Godfrey Sykes. This reminds me of the kind of tables that were at the World's Fair Expo 86 in my hometown of Vancouver. This is so interesting. This was commissioned. This is a piece of contemporary fashion that was commissioned for the 2021 exhibition Bags Inside Out. The dress was reproduced from the collection to show the inner structure of a Mantua gown, which was the formal style popular in the 1720s. So it's interesting to see the inside of the dress this way. The V&A of course is always known for their fashion collection as well as many other collections. Mugs from all different times. They've even gone so far as to open up the walls of people's conservation studios and office space. You can see beyond this gate glass walls so you can see right inside. Okay, so here is one of those really remarkable little galleries that they are able to kind of have on display here just because of the sheer size. So this is the ornate carved ceiling from the palace in Torrijos, which shows you the Islamic influence on medieval Spain. And the ceiling was built in about 1490. Of course, the Victoria and Albert Museum is big, but it's not big enough to fully assemble things like the ceiling. This storehouse is though. So the V&A does work to salvage parts of historic houses. You can see these fragments and decorations were originally part of the magpie and stump house, which was designed by Charles Robert Ashby in the 1890s. This house was in Chelsea until 1969. And then bits and pieces of it became part of the V&A collection. Of course, curators often have to make excruciating decisions about what to put out on display and what to leave in storage. And so this really helps to mitigate that problem. He has some examples of British art pottery. This really reminds me of the Frederick Watts Museum and Tomb in Gotalming. Many of these pottery objects were designed by women, like Mary Watts, and so they were often overlooked at the time. So it's lovely to have them on display. Little tiny football jersey. And some examples of toys. Of course, the Victoria and Albert Museum isn't just located in South Kensington. They also have the Young V&A, which used to be called the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, and that's in Bethnal Green. We're about to go inside a recreated flat from Robin Hood Gardens, which was a brutalist housing estate that was built in the 1970s. I'm fascinated by Robin Hood Gardens and by Trellick Towers. I made a mission out to Poplar to see Robin Hood Gardens years and years ago when I heard that it was going to be demolished. And the Victoria and Albert Museum has saved part of it for our brutalist history here in London. You can see this beautiful kind of late mid-century wood and this wallpaper. Wow, it's really stylish. But then, of course, the grey concrete that was the hallmark of this style of housing estate. Here's a short film that the Victoria and Albert Museum worked on with residents of the Robin Hood Gardens as they were facing eviction partway through the West Blocks demolition. Some of these are people that had lived here for 30, 40 years. They've even got objects, you know, labeled caring for the body, different mirrors and combs and brushes. These are objects that often get forgotten about in big grand museums like the British Museum. We've come around in a full circle and I didn't even realize it. Okay, onwards and upwards. This is a whole display here of faked and forged busts. Forgeries have their own interest. They teach us how to create convincing imitations and they also offer us an insight into the world of like art deception and art crime. The Victoria and Albert has a long history of making plaster casts of endangered heritage and archaeology and this is casting Mamluk architecture. This is a plaster cast of some decorative details in old Cairo. Nice to see there's still plenty of empty shelves, lots of room for more things, but it does kind of have an IKEA vibe. This looks like Mughal dancing. Painted panels from the Shah's Palace in Tehran. A solo improvisational court dance. I mean, there's there's parts of this museum that I don't even know how to get to. A display case about all of their different kinds of mosaics. Oh, a very intriguing glass chair. This was designed in 1991 by artist Danny Lane in London. Okay, here we're about to be treated to the Frankfurt kitchen. Architect Margaret Schutt Lihotsky revolutionized housework with this fitted kitchen, 10,000 of which were installed across housing projects in Frankfurt, Germany. This dates to 1926 and 1927. Oh my goodness, this must have seemed so modern. This reminds me of a flat I used to live in in Vancouver. Shout out to Holly Lodge. I mean, since it's only recently opened and it's gone crazy on social media, it's actually really busy here. So I'm being careful to not hog any of the displays. But let's have another look inside the Frankfurt kitchen. I would like this today. I say that but I like my dishwasher. This whole section here about conservation and conserving modern materials. You can see, you know, headphones and an iPhone. I'm always panging on about insect traps when I'm in the museums because even in the British Museum's most illustrious displays, you'll see these little moth and roach traps. And of course, it seems quite icky, but it's an important part of making sure museum collections stay safe. I always think that they should always have cats. We're heading now to something called the conservation overlook. I'm excited. Oh, cool. This is so great. Oh my god. Even look at the washer and dryer there. Of course, you're going to need things like this. Wow. This is going to change museums around the world. So this is all about the process of photographing the collection. I used to do that when I worked at the Vancouver Crime and Police Museum. But here you can see a teddy bear made by the Fast Black Skirt Company in about 1907. When it's x-rayed, you can see an internal mechanism that gives it light up eyes. It's pretty advanced for 1907. Guys, I feel like I could spend two weeks here. I only have an hour. Oh, I recognize this. Some of you know, I used to live in India. And these are Indian and I think also used in Indonesia. They're block printing tiles. You use these to add beautiful patterns on to fabrics. When you're in India, you can buy a lot of them in markets. Some of them are fake. They're just made for tourists. But if you go to old fabric warehouses and factories, you can actually buy the real ones. And of course, they're mentioning in the display, in the curation, they're mentioning that William Morris was really fascinated by block prints. And William Morris, of course, has a Victoria and Albert Museum connection, because he designed the very first cafe ever in a museum gallery. And that is at the South Kensington Museum. This reminds me of when I was a little girl, my mom used to work at a telephone, a plastic molding factory, and I had a telephone without the guts that I used to play with. Interesting. This display is all about the fact that the Victoria and Albert Museum inherited the India Museum collection. So that was founded in 1801 by the East India Company in London. And it had a wide ranging collection, which of course, most of it was looted, although there was some objects that were gifts and purchases. And it was designed to educate visitors about India and demonstrate the East India Company's power and influence. In 1879, that museum closed, and the South Kensington Museum, which is now called the Victoria and Albert, received 19,000 objects, of which these are just some protest objects here. I went to an amazing exhibition at the Victoria and Albert a few years ago about protest and some of these things were on display then. The Victoria and Albert has chosen not to name the enslaver who collected these objects. They say that we want to remember instead the hundreds of women, men and children who were forced to labor on his sugar plantations in Jamaica and suffered for the sake of his, quote, taste. Now, I hate to say it, but they could be referring to any number of British collectors in the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course, Sir Hans Sloane, just one of many, he the founder of the British Museum was a slave owner and slave trader. Oh, you know, my heart gets weak when I see my medieval church decorations. Okay, I've been really excited about this one. This is an interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that's been completely preserved. Here is the Kauffman office made from cypress plywood. It's the only complete interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on permanent display outside of the USA. So I'm really excited to show you this. It was designed for Pittsburgh retail magnate Edgar J. Kauffman Sr., who commissioned Wright to design this room for one of his department stores. Now Kauffman was convinced by his son, who had worked as an apprentice for Frank Lloyd Wright to adopt this very modern style. If you like mid-century modern furniture, and I mean, who doesn't these days, this is truly a feast for the eyes. The lighting is wonderful. I've never coveted anything as much in my life as having this office. I feel like I wouldn't be very productive in here, but I would really, really enjoy it. Here's a few more details, a few more objects connected to Frank Lloyd Wright here. So I approached an employee, I did it off camera, I approached an employee about what this was because I was just desperately seeking a way inside. It looked almost like a ship to me. But let's see if you can guess the answer that he gave me that made me do a big old facepalm. This is the exterior of that ceiling that we just looked at, the Spanish interior ceiling. This, of course it is, it didn't occur to me, but it is wonderful. I've already been inside, I didn't even realize. So it's really cool that you can see how it's constructed. He told me that the museum curators talked about boxing it in, but they wanted people to be able to see the structure. The same lovely museum employee helped me out to find the agrar colonnade because I couldn't seem to find it. But he told me it was actually beneath my feet, I was standing right on top of it. We've already looked straight down into this glass floor. Well, from this angle here, you can actually see it a lot better. There it is. The agrar colonnade, which you can see beneath my feet now, is five columns with separate pillars, capitals and bases carved with scrolling floral and plant designs. And it was made between 1630 and 1640. Now remember, that's roughly the same time that the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal, also famously in Agra. Let's get really down. It's hard to see with the reflection of the glass. There you go. Look at all the grandfather clocks down here. I just recently released a video about the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and I learned all about clock pendulums. So now I've got a bit of a fascination with them. I mean, really, no matter what your hobby or interest, there's something in this collection that represents it. There's another really interesting perspective of that ceiling. I feel like I've only touched the tip of the iceberg, but I think we're gonna end now because I have to go catch my train. It's been my absolute pleasure to show you around the Victoria and Albert storehouse, and I hope that you get to come here soon on your own. Let me know if you like this type of video where I just kind of wander through a museum without any previous research, or if you prefer my usual deep dives. I'll see you the next time I'm at the museum. Hopefully this one!