Magnes Open Study Storage

When first dreaming up the idea of Open Study Storage with others at the Museum for the first several various Collection Access Project grant requests, something quite specific came to mind.

The concept was an amalgam of Visible Storage and Study Storage and something of a space/energy/resource saver. Transparency is an operative word.

Open Study Storage is something that happens w/in the collections space and ACCESS becomes another issue, another factor. And it makes investment (very costly if done well, as Linda has noted) in Collections Storage more attractive, enticing. In the presentations to-date we haven't seen it, yet; but more a variation on "core" collections display.

I was most interested in the technology component and think the central spaces can be filled with all kinds of technical potential, and perhaps something that can be accessed as well from home in a similar manner. Again, another issue.

The Open Study Storage may be intended to allow for bringing Collections Management to the fore, though maybe not out-of-doors, so to speak.

In my experiences the gorgeous spaces at the Metropolitan like the Luce Center are amazing examples, but they are not really visited much. They are also not truly or practically central to either the collection storage or Museum display. Perhaps the space at the New York Historical Society (also funded by Luce, I think) works better; but I am not feeling like these are the best examples.

And that space, too, should be like a lab; and able to produce wonderful work encouraging all kinds of access, and making connections. I think it's also important that there is a new sense for the "viral".

There's another space called the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Met. It is constructed for those in the trade and for scholars. I think we should talk with them about visitorship and usage. There's a major technology component there as well. And it received a bunch of funding from Toyota (early money in sewing machines) and Ratti (an Italian silk merchant/tie maker).