Another of the places where rug collectors experience frustration with museums is in the arena of the accessibility of the materials in the museum collection.

Let me just tick off a few instances and experiences and then ask a couple of questions.

First, I have been attempting, in an admittedly desultory way, to study the Turkmen weavings in the TM collections for a number of years. I have never been able to get my hands on a single piece there, excepting that I was once invited to examine some pieces when Elena Tzareva was visiting and looking at some TM material she had not previously seen. (About six of us did bare hands examination of selected pieces for an hour. I've had my hands on the glorious Salor trapping that is plate 14 in the 1980 Mackie/Thompson catalog. It's the best Turkmen piece I've ever seen "in the wool.")

On the other hand, last year I visited London and wrote to the V & A asking to examine some of their Turkmen materials. Without knowing me at all, they gave me an appointment and my wife and I had over two hours of free access to their Turkmen material on a bare-hands basis.

Another instance of variation in accessibility apparently occurs in the TM practice itself. When I first began to attend the Saturday "rug and textile appreciation" morning programs, it was rumored that TM materials could be shown in such programs a maximum of four times each year. In recent years that has not been achieved and the new rumor is that museum materials can now be shown in only one rug morning program each year.

It does seem that there is a considerable restriction on the accessibility, not only the public, but even those studying textiles closely, have nowadays to TM materials. I know several collectors who have concluded that they should not under any circumstances donate their collections to museums since this will likely result in this material being effectively buried. They have concluded that their material will in fact far more likely be seen and appreciated by folks who value it, if it is sold at auction.

And as my TM vs V & A examples indicate there is considerable variation in the policies in this area too.

Sara, would you speak to the likely basis for the seeming inconsistency that I have encountered with regard to accessibility?

More importantly, would you describe the factors and considerations that affect museum decisions concerning accessibility of their collections.

Thanks,

R. John Howe

I am among the collectors who has opted against donation of my collection to museums. The reason is simple: almost nobody will see, enjoy or learn from the pieces if I do so. I have offered two museums (TM and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) the following: any time they would like to exhibit something I own, they are welcome to borrow if for as long as they like, and I prefer that my name not be put on the piece as the lender (for security reasons).

I do understand part of the problem most museums face. They simply cannot display more than a small fraction of what they hold. My recollection is that the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts holds more than 15,000 pieces of African art, and I believe the number is similar for the TM holdings in textiles. No more than a few hundred can be shown at one time, and, if an exhibited piece remains on display for an average of three months, each piece would be shown once every 15 or 20 years on the average.

I have no constructive solution to this dilemma, by the way.

Steve Price

There are levels and levels in the accessibility question.

I quite understand that only a small part of any museum collection can be displayed at any one time but most of my question had to do with what might be called accessibility to those with what might be seen to be more scholarly interests.

The V & A took me in, unknown, with open arms. They actually expressed interest in my study. With the TM it has be difficult to get responses to requests. My question was mostly pitched at this second level of accessibility and at that of the use of TM material in the rug morning programs.

Undoubtedly, Sara will be able to provide some rationale.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Three weeks later, I walked into the Met in NYC and asked for the opportunity to see some of the McMullin rugs; I would be happy to make an appointment. They laughed at me!

The moral: there are some nice museum folks and not-so-nice museum folks. It's a shame to hear that the TM is in the latter category. Exposure of rugs to a maximum of 4 times a year is shear nonsense and elitism of the worst kind!
Bets regards,
Marvin

the internet might be the way to go . . .

perhaps we could suggest a standard for how to image a textile . . .how many images and of what, and a way of cataloging. Than assuming that this is done systematically than it would take all that long, a couple of decades perhaps, to get the majority of collections imaged and catalogued.

Maybe this could be the subject of a salon?

Just imagine a data base that could be assembled and if the thought is spent on how to do, how helpful it could be in learning about our respective areas

sincerely

Richard Farber

Actually the De Young Museum in San Fracisco, which has over the last few years aggressively assembled a very impressive textiles and rug collection has done just that. If I understand they either have or intend to have their full collections accessible on the Internet.

Here is the link to that portion of the museum collection:

http://www.thinker.org/deyoung/collections/textiles.html

It takes a little learning to use (especially how to see images in close-up) but they done a real job of making their collections accessible in this medium at least. Likely took a lot of time and money.

Regards,

R. John Howe

The Saturday morning programs at the TM are also a function of a reduced staff. When the CM department was fully staffed, there was one person working on Saturdays to be able to service those programs. Now when those programs are done, 4-6 staff members have to do it on their day off, not receiving any compensation for their time. You can ask people to do that once a year, or so, but I don't think you can fairly do it 3 or 4 times. This doesn't include the time necessary evaluate objects with the guest speaker, prepare the pieces for what is, in essence, a mini-exhibition, often undertake some conservation stabilization to make pieces available, set up and tear down the mini-exhibition in a room that has dozens of other uses, so nothing can stay there after the program, undertake to freeze, vacuum and rehouse the objects, inventory the shelves after they are put away and update information in the database.

A substantial number of objects have been photographed and are available electronically from the TM library.

I have been to that museum and another with a similar display feature in Fairbanks, Alaska, that also has Native American items in drawers, usually beneath a diorama or larger display piece above. You hit the nail on the head regarding the obvious limitation of displaying larger pieces in this fashion. Another frustration for rug museum visitors would be the neck ache from trying to see the back of the rug, assuming the bottom of the drawer is also plexiglass.
Perhaps this method would work best for bags and trappings.

Achingly yours,
Patrick Weiler

The V & A in London also has smaller pieces in such drawers.

Interesting, to me, was the fact that the Turkmen main carpets were hung on (I think, circular) racks in an open but curtained area. When not being examined this area is dark. One examines a main carpet by taking it (bare-handed) by the side selvege and pulling it to where you are on one side of the rack. I was surprised at this storage arrangement since it would seem to put the structure of the rugs at their upper ends under considerable constant weight and tension.

The drawers are unsatisfying to someone to wants to see the weave on the back, as many of us would. But they do provide considerable close-up access to the collection.

Photos were not available for many of the pieces at the V & A and those available were very expensive. I think, the TM still charges only $3 per slide. Rather a bargain.

Regards,

R. John Howe

A few messages above this, you said, The Textile Museum receives hundreds of requests a month for access to the collections. Are you quite sure that this is accurate, and not something an overworked staff person said to you while frustrated about some problem or other? It is an astonishing figure; I would have been surprised to learn that TM gets even one such request in a typical month.

Steve Price

Requests come to the Director, each member of the curatorial staff (7), the collections management staff (2), Cotsen documentation project (3) and conservation staff (3). Each of those individuals services as many of those requests as they can without taking away from projects that have upcoming deadlines (like an exhibition installation), and turn down the others. Yes, we get lots of them, by letter, e-mail, fax and letter.

you mentioned the Cotsen documentaion project. Perhaps you, or some participant, would be kind and explain what the project is . . . to those of us in ether world and not in North America . . .

Thanks again for the salon,

Richard Farber