Before embarking on our transformation of the V&A Museum of Childhood we need to complete a number of what we call u2018enablingu2019 projects. These are activities which need to be done before we can begin preparing the building for new gallery displays. For example, if you were very organised when you were moving house, you might write a list of contents on each box. Museums do something very similar when we move our collections!
The first of these u2018enabling projectsu2019 u00a0involves auditing, packing and transporting of the collections in storage here in Bethnal Green to the V&A in South Kensington. Our collections will be stored temporarily at South Kensington until they join the rest of the V&A collections in Stratford in a few yearsu2019 time.
Auditing is a standard museum activity, but itu2019s quite rare to audit an entire collection of 35,000 objects in the space of one year.u00a0 We have a brilliant team of curators, conservators and museum technicians working hard on the decant project alongside a team of volunteers.
The audit team are working systematically through the collections box by box, shelf by shelf and store by store, checking that each part of every object is in the correct location. At the same time, we assess the condition of each object, making sure itu2019s safe for the object to be moved. If an object needs a bit of help to move safely, Conservation and Technical Services work together to make a packing plan support that object so it arrives safely in its new home. Weu2019re also separating out objects which will be displayed in the future galleries.
The team say that the best part of the job is the rediscovery of objects in the stores! Weu2019ve come across many interesting and beautiful objects during our audit of the Textiles store, many of which youu2019ll be seeing in the future museum. u00a0
