How One Museum Is Reinventing the Way Collections Are Shown

Imagine spending a day at a museum without seeing the actual exhibits but instead visiting the warehouse where they keep everything that isn't on display. That's the non-obvious ​concept behind the V&A East Storehouse​ that just opened on the east side of London. Affiliated with the Victoria and Albert family of museums, this venue built on the site of the former London 2012 Olympics Media Centre houses over 250,000 objects, 350,000 library books and 1,000 archives.

"Storehouse is a new kind of museum experience. It gives you a chance to see behind the scenes of a working museum, explore why and how objects get collected by museums, find out how they are cared for, and uncover the stories they tell about us and our world."

The space also includes pop-up displays, workshops, performances and screenings. One of the most interesting features will be their ​Order an Object experience​, where you can book to see an artifact up close ahead of time and curators will personally show it to you. The whole concept is aimed at "providing radical access to the national collections held by the V&A" and just opened a few weeks ago.