FAQ
Costume Collection Q & A
You may have seen Carol Vogel’s article in the New York Times about the exciting news concerning the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection, and our collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but if you haven’t, please have a look.
Charles James (American, born England, 1906-1978). Dress, Evening, 1952. Silk. Gift of Mrs. R. A. Bernatschke.
I am taking questions about this collaboration this week via our blog. However, I am also on vacation, away from the Museum, with a slow dial-up connection. So please bear with me, as I try to respond as soon as I can.
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Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
December 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I’d love to see more pictures from the Museum’s collection. Looking forward to seeing what kinds of exhibits you and the Met organize.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Every time I visit NYC, I am sure to make a stop at the MET to see what clothing exhibits they have going. This will make it even more exciting. I see that there will be a book published that shows highlights from the collection. Is there a tentative date set for this? I will surely be on the pre-order list!!
December 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Hi, Megan. Part of this project has been to do some splendid photographs of the stars of the collection, in order to include them with catalogue information on ARTstor. This will still take a little while to complete, but when the images are available there, we will announce it on this website. We haven’t yet decided exactly what the exhibitions in the spring of 2010 will be, but since it will take us about a year to prepare the exhibitions, we will be announcing soon what we will be showing. The possibilities are a little overwhelming, since the collection is so rich!
Thanks for your comments, Mark. The Brooklyn Museum and the Met plan to do simultaneous exhibitions in the spring of 2010 to focus attention on the great Brooklyn collection. We project that the book highlighting the masterpieces will be ready to accompany those two exhibitions. We have already done some great photography, so the book is bound to be beautiful. If you are in New York in the spring or early summer of 2010, please plan not only to go to the Met to see the costumes, but also to come out to Brooklyn to see the costume exhibition we will have here, as well. I promise it will be worth the trip!
December 20th, 2008 at 9:49 am
While I love the Met’s Fashion Department, I cannot understand why the Brooklyn Museum would not want to take that grant money and establish itself as a go-to place to see these items. With all due respect, it does not make sense and only serves to further reduce the stature of a wonderful museum.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I understand your reluctance to see the costume collection leave the Brooklyn Museum, but the fact is, the grant money you mention would only be a fraction of the amount required to retain, preserve, and program the costume collection for the long term. As generous as the grant was, its intention was only to inventory, catalogue, and photograph the collection, not to address its long-term needs. The collaboration we have established insures that the collection will have the advantage of state-of-the-art storage and care, and also be available for all of the exhibition needs of the Brooklyn Museum. As museums face the challenges of a new century, both the care of existing collections, and the presentation of those collections to the public become major focuses of our mission. It will be necessary for museums to avoid competition, and embrace cooperation in order to meet these challenges. We believe this collaboration serves as a model for that approach.
December 27th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Hear Hear AJM.
Why did the BROOKLYN Museum of Art not let anyone know they were in negotiations to drop part of their collection?
I, for one, am appalled.
I can’t believe that no notice or open discussion wa sheld. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES shoud any high quality/stature items be taken form Brooklyn to Manhattan.
Enough of this dumbing down of the museum.
July 26th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Ahaan… I will follow.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Does anyone know if there’s a searchable database of designers for the Costume Collection, or any catalog info for the upcoming auction?
Thanks, S
October 30th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Hi Steve,
I am pleased to say that very soon the public will have access to a portion of the costumes from the Brooklyn Museum Collection at the Metropolitan Museum. The 4,000 most important works from that collection were beautifully photographed and catalogued during our review process, and they will be available soon on ARTstor, a nonprofit digital library resource whose one million images are available through libraries, including those at universities, colleges and museums. For more information about ARTstor, you can visit their site at www.artstor.org. The people at ARTstor tell me that the Brooklyn costume material is next in the queue for launch.
We can also direct you to the material that is, after review, being deaccessioned and sold by mutual agreement between the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. The costume material that is considered inappropriate to retain for the collection because it duplicates other material, has condition problems, or other issues, is being sold over time by Karen Augusta Auctions. If you keep an eye on upcoming auctions at that gallery, you will find material from this collection. You can find them at www.augusta-auctions.com.