A Introduction to Visible Storage Area Two at the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware

By Barbara Choit, Founder/Director,
The Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware

The Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware is the only private institution in New York City dedicated to the future historical importance of Twenty First Century ceramics and glassware. Founded in 2004, the Museum exclusively collects damaged ceramic and glass items, primarily everyday items of food preparation and consumption. In 2006, the private collection became accessible to the public through the erection of the Museum's current exhibition space at 141 Division Street in Chinatown, New York. The museum boasts holdings of over seventy broken dishes - each unique, each accessible to the public through the museum's Visible Storage system.

The Museum's mission statement, "At the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware we believe that the future of archaeology should be just as exciting as its past," gives insight into the importance of preservation within what is commonly regarded as the tripartite role of museums --to preserve, collect, and educate. It is the position of the Museum that ceramic fragments will eventually become the artifacts used to define contemporary civilization. Pottery shards have arguably been the most important pieces of physical evidence used by archaeologists and anthropologists to gain insight into the lives of human groups. By preserving and collecting these items, the Museum ensures that the Twenty First Century will be properly documented within human history.

The Museum acquires all of its ceramic and glass items from a group of benefactors officially known as the Friends and Founders of the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware. The personal interests of the Friends, a large portion of who only collect household items, vary immensely. The Friends are akin in their ownership of multiple ceramic and glass items and in their similar experience of having their completed collections fragmented. Every item accessioned by the museum has been de- accessioned from a once cohesive assembly of similar items. Breakage is the main cause for an artifact to be de-accessioned from a single collector's holdings, but often cracking or chipping is deemed an acceptable reason to separate a unit from its group. At the Museum, disjointed fragments of multiple collections come together to form the manifold organization that is the permanent collection.

Unlike many small museums, which draw visitors through short-term exhibitions of items loaned from other institutions, or through hosting high-profile exhibitions that travel to multiple destinations, the success of the Division Museum comes from both the strength and visibility of its permanent collection. At the Museum, every piece in the collection is on display to all visitors at all times. This is made possible by the recent construction of the Visible Storage Area (Figure 1). Part museum storage, part exhibition space, Visible Storage consists of everything the museum holds.

Figure 1. Visible Storage Area, as of April 30, 2007. Photograph
© Division Museum of Ceramic and Glassware Archive Department.

Since the construction of the Visible Storage Area, the museum has seen a dramatic surge in donations to the permanent collection. Givers are keen to see their broken ceramics and glassware items on permanent display, and seem extremely eager to see how the Museum's conservation staff will have to deal with the accession of unstable artifacts considered to be less than 'exhibition quality.' Members of the public continue to visit the museum, often specifically to watch the visual storage area become more populated through their support. Recently, a modification to the Visible Storage Area has become necessary – the result of a cultural climate in which it has become increasingly fashionable to donate to Division Museum.

Visible Storage Area Two was added on May 26, 2007 to deal with overflow from the original Visible Storage Area, now renamed Visible Storage Area One. The collection was split both so that it could become better organized and to allow an important element that was lacking within the former structure --room for expansion and space to aggressively solicit donations. However, the physical division of the collection into two parts stirred much controversy within the multipartite institution. Deciding on a method of classification by which to divide items became a question of who should be in charge of the selection process. The methodology by which objects are relocated is determined by the concerns of the individuals overseeing the move. Within the museum, individual concerns are expressed through the different departments within the institution.

The methodology by which to move reconfigure the collection became a divisive issue amongst the museum staff, who all felt very strongly about the issues related to their roles in preserving the collection. Due to the visibility of the objects - -and their impact on the viewer’s experience of the museum-- the Curatorial Department had expected to oversee redistribution. As the Visible Storage Area, although seen by viewers, was to be a functioning storage space and not a curated selection, the Conservation Department felt that they should direct the transfer of objects. They claimed that the curatorial team was not qualified to consider all of the factors impacting the safety of the artifacts. The Department of the Registrar was particularly anxious about changes to the Museum's collection database. They were against the move and in favor of the order they had inherited since the inception of the Museum –one that has worked thus far and had, for the most part, prevented loss or theft. An older debate resurfaced, as to whether the collection should be visible at all, causing the Education Department and Visitor Relations Department to strongly reiterate the fact that the Visible Storage Area itself is the reason for unprecedented public involvement in the small museum --perhaps it should be the public who decides.

As the above-mentioned departments started to work together to find a way to structure the new addition, they spent a significant amount of energy consciously taking into consideration each other’s concerns. However, they neglected to consult the Archive Department, who, from the periphery of the extensive meetings, debates, and planning sessions, suggested the most practical, simple solution. Visible Storage Area Two now consists of plates and flat oblong ceramic objects that require display stands. The Archive Department maintains that they, through the Museum’s rigorous documentation protocol, spent the most time handling and looking at these objects and it is natural that they should finally provide an answer to the question of simultaneous presentation and preservation. However, critics maintain that the Archives' influence turned what was supposed to be an extension of the storage space into a "photographically" curated exhibition with morphology, as opposed to historical association or material condition, as the organizing principal, or as critics call it, the "theme." Even harsher critics have called attention to the pictorial nature of the new arrangement stating that it "looks like a still life" (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Visible Storage Area Two as of May 26, 2007. Photograph
© Division Museum of Ceramic and Glassware Archive Department.

Despite the visual similarity of the artifacts chosen by the Archive Department (Figure 3), the small group of objects relocated to Visible Storage Area Two; dm.0003, dm.0011, dm.0055, dm.0061, and dm.0079; effectively shows the breadth of the Museums register. Closer examination of the museum’s inventory data sheets show an array of materials, production techniques, and cultural influences manifested in these five examples of commercially manufactured tableware. Most importantly, the multiplicity of the Friends and Founders of the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware is revealed in each object’s provenance (Figures 4 through 7).

Figure 3. Obverse and reverse views of items moved to Visible Storage Two on May 26, 2007. © Division Museum of Ceramic and Glassware Archive Department.

The idea of five objects representing the permanent collection has had great consequences at the Museum where it is strongly upheld that it is the through the inventory, all of the inventory, that the scope of the museums relationship with its benefactors is represented. The original Visible Storage Area was a manifestation of two parties' devotion to the perpetual exhibition of converging collections. Regardless of controversy within the institution, the directors of the museum were careful not let the final resolution stray from the original motivation behind Visible Storage --the Museum's dedication to the Friends and Founders' support of the Museum.

With the knowledge that all artifacts collected by the museum will provide data vital to the understanding of future ancient times, The Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware and the Friends and Founders of the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware are united by a belief in their integral role in the narrative of our current historical period. It is the intention of the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware that the shared housing of once disparate items will eventually provide archaeologists with a fruitful site of excavation and provide historians with objects of exciting provenance. The impact of the Museum will extend to its benefactors, who in building the Museum’s collection, succeed in establishing the Museum as an institution in which they founded.

Below, top to bottom. Figures 4-7. Inventory records for items dm.0003, dm.0011, dm.0055, dm.0061, and dm.0079. Items currently located in Visible Storage Two as of May 26, 2007. © Division Museum of Ceramic and Glassware Archive Department. Courtesy the Department of the Registrar at the Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware.