The changing role of the museum in the twenty-first century has resulted in a number of collections acquiring objects from contemporary society. The outbreak of coronavirus is no exception.
From the Danish Vesthimmerlands Museum, to the UK’s Victoria and Albert Museum, establishments across the world are collecting pieces of the present for the future, and the outbreak of Covid-19 is one such instance of contemporary acquisition for institutions often believed to sit firmly in the past.
Maria Hagstrup, curator of the Vesthimmerlands Museum, said that: “Usually, we think of a museum as a place with objects behind solid glass.
“But right now, we have a chance to get people’s impressions in the moment, before they’ve even had time to reflect on them.”
Her museum placed a call of social media asking members of the public to send accounts of living and working during the pandemic. Thus far, the institution has had responses from dentists, home school pupils and owners of small businesses. The multi-vocality in this curation policy indicates a changing direction for establishments such as these.
In 2014 the Victoria and Albert Museum opened the world’s first “rapid response” collection, intended to react to contemporary events of art and design as and when they happen.
Overseen by Corinna Gardner, the collection comprises of a range of unconventional pieces including a pink “pussyhat” worn during the 2017 Women’s March and the world’s first 3-D printed gun.
Gardner is already considering a piece to represent the pandemic – a handsfree device to open doors, created by Ivo Tedbury and Freddie Hong which is available for 3-D printing online.
From photographs of stockpiling, to medical masks, collections of contemporary objects are a clear indication that the future of museums differs from their pasts.
