{"id":448,"date":"2014-03-15T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/15\/victoria-and-albert-museum-2\/"},"modified":"2014-03-15T21:30:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T21:30:00","slug":"victoria-and-albert-museum-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/victoria-and-albert-museum-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Victoria and Albert Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nVictoria and Albert Museum<\/h1>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn
\nmy work I have visited many, many museums. 
\nIn general, I nearly always leave with a feeling that something was
\nlacking.  Museums should not be only
\nrepositories of objects but a source of education.  These institutions are a perfect venue to provide educational
\nopportunities in which the public can attend lectures, examine collections and
\nexperience the actual exhibits. 
\nTextiles are perfect subjects for such a learning experience.  Sadly, many institutions have a very poor record
\nwhen it comes to their textile collections. 
\nToday, many objects are poorly stored, the extent of the collections
\nunknown (as many textiles remain uncatalogued) and the curatorial staff not
\nexperts in textiles.  The public
\ndeserves better, but the public is generally unaware of this situation.  So it is up to us, textile lovers, to spread
\nthe word and request more opportunities for public inspection and interaction.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThere
\nare, of course, many institutions that do a very good job of presenting their collections
\nto the public.  One of my very favorite
\nmuseums is the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, England<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOver
\nmany years I have had the opportunity to visit their galleries and examine
\ntheir textiles.  Their galleries are
\nextremely user friendly with educational didactic panels.  A policy that  is becoming more routine in many museums, photography (without
\nflash) has been permitted in the V&A (with a few exceptions) for the many
\nyears I have been visiting.  Costumes
\nare displayed on mannequins in vignettes of daily life so that it is apparent
\nthat these are articles of daily life, or articles for formal occasions.  In the textile galleries there are hundreds
\nand hundreds of fabrics in glassed flat panels that can be taken to study desks
\nto be leisurely examined.  The lighting
\nis good , the chairs comfortable and the staff well informed.  It is a pleasure to study there.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\nhistory of the V&A began with a committee appointed by Parliament in
\n1835.  The Select Committee on Arts and
\nManufactures set about to determine the best methods to extend knowledge of
\narts and design. . In1851 a Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
\nNations selected their exhibits on the basis of their workmanship or art
\nquality.  These exhibits were then  acquired with government funding and
\ncombined with collections of various schools of design to become The Museum of
\nManufactures under the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Victoria
\nopened the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) to the public in 1857.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\nV&A is considered to be the largest museum of decorative arts and design
\nwith the largest collection of textiles in the world and the most comprehensive
\ncollection of costumes and fashion in Britain. 
\nThis massive museum has 145 galleries and a collection of over 4.5
\nmillion objects.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\nV&A has a large list of publications featuring the collection.  I have several of their textile books which
\nfeature lovely plates of the textiles, an educational introduction, glossary
\nand additional specific information (for example, in volume Embroidery In
\nBritain from 1200 to 1750 there is included a technical illustration of
\nembroidery stitches).<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\nIf
\nyou are fortunate to be visiting London, you really must include a lengthy
\nvisit to the V&A.  Their website
\nwill acquaint you with their current and upcoming exhibits as well as a list of
\ntheir publications. www.vam.ac.uk<\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria and Albert Museum In my work I have visited many, many museums.  In general, I nearly always leave with a feeling that something was lacking.  Museums should not be only repositories of objects but a source of education.  These institutions are a perfect venue to provide educational opportunities in which the public can attend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}