Museum Storage is Not an Icebox: Re-examining Textile Storage at the RISD Museum

Abstract

Abstract Using the Costume and Textiles Department of the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) as a case study, this article examines the history and current practices of collections-based work and care through the lens of Andy Warhol’s seminal museum-artist intervention exhibition, Raid the Icebox I. The study demonstrates the crucial need for museums to introduce empathic and transparent ways of working in storage, as well as engaging audiences with collections not on view in exhibition galleries. Authored by RISD Museum curatorial and conservation staff, the case study hinges on the idea that museum storage facilities are not static places, but rather living, constantly-changing organic spaces that receive and require active care and attention. They are places that are filled with activity and in continual flux—always in a state of becoming, especially as mistakes, flaws, and historical biases are faced and confronted.