The Guardian view on a new era for museums: letting the public take control | Editorial

The V&A East Storehouse and the award-winning Manchester Museum show radical ways forwardThe museum of the future has arrived and it looks like an Amazon warehouse. But art critics have unanimously awarded it five stars. From Saturday, visitors to the V&A East Storehouse in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be able to wander among the 250,000 objects in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection that are not on display in its west London home. The headline-grabbing order-an-object initiative means you can book online to get your hands (gloves are provided) on a priceless artefact any day you like. And all for free.It is a triumph born out of necessity. After the V&A’s eviction from their Kensington storage home a decade ago, they decided that instead of hiding one of the world’s largest design collections in an expensive warehouse, they would turn it into an attraction in its own right. Storage is a big issue for institutions: only 1% of the British Museum’s more than 8m artefacts are on public display. Showing off your overflowing attic makes the most of what you’ve already got, repurposing a closet that, for the V&A, includes a Balenciaga gown (the most requested item so far) and PJ Harvey’s hotpants.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Comments

Opinions

LOVERRO: They say 90% of success in life is just showing up

ANDREW NEIL: Starmer is shifting Leftwards to save his own skin. And that means one thing: yet more tax rises are coming our way...

Remembering my friend Bernard Kerik — NYC’s top cop

Biden coverup demands ‘Watergate’ hearings, Democrats’ Hispanic exodus and other commentary

Ukraine’s surprise strike deep in Russia — an excellent way to push Putin to talk peace

Why isn't 8% of my salary going into my pension like it's meant to? STEVE WEBB replies

Pope Leo XIV's surprise election reveals why the Catholic Church survives leadership changes

The 'gospel of pride' Is not the Gospel of Christ

Iran's theocracy can't be trusted

Reagan's 'Star Wars' to Trump's Golden Dome: The moral vision to save lives in a dangerous world

Much of wokeness fueled by the sexual revolution

Left's ranks are filled with angry, bitter women who have been seduced by lies

RUTH SUNDERLAND: Financial crisis of 2008 still haunts us

ANDREW PIERCE: Oh Kemi, you're getting too blue for the Commons

Nigel Farage told me exact moment he decided to run for PM – now he’s marching to No 10 but EVERYTHING’S about to change

Humiliating arrival of 1,194 illegal migrants in a single day must be a watershed moment in immigration crisis

The game changing item that transformed my makeup game forever - but surprisingly most people never use it: POLISHED with Elise Wilson

Supreme Court helping Trump undo one of Biden’s most egregious migrant moves

SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: Where the incredibly tight Premiership play-offs will be decided - and what the teams can learn from PSG's Luis Enrique

This 'speakeasy' bar has one of the best views in Edinburgh

How Zohran Mamdani’s promises would destroy working-class New York

DEAR JANE: Friends always joked about my abnormal appearance. Then my mother admitted the truth... it was worse than I could've imagined

Letters to the Editor: As July 4th approaches, Orange County preserve requires fire-preventing action

It is high time that irresponsible campervan users are taxed off the NC500

Democrats made themselves toxic — now they’re addicted to their own poison

Courts’ power over President Trump: Letters to the Editor — June 2, 2025

ASK DR ELLIE: Why does my thigh feel like it's BURNING? It could be down to these alarming reasons...

QUENTIN LETTS: My friends in France say their country's ban on smoking in public will be ignored with a Gallic shrug. Will we be as defiant when it happens here?

I had a ringside seat as arrogant men nearly destroyed a great British bank. That dramatic tale offers a dire warning today: RUTH SUNDERLAND

Public sector workers who refuse to come into the office should be sacked

Starmer has just done more for Scotland than Swinney will ever do

Rise of Reform means Scots are now so scunnered they want to set the world on fire

The Golden Dome peace dividend

Michael Goodwin: Washington media mob shows its true colors as Jake Tapper breaks ranks with Biden book

ALEXANDRA SHULMAN'S NOTEBOOK: It's a stitch up that men still decide what women wear

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Labour fears Farage far more than it cares about the white working class

Jacob Bethell is the future for England cricket but here's why he should be kept waiting for Test call, writes NASSER HUSSAIN

White House reshapes, restores America as land of opportunity

TONY HETHERINGTON: Help! Storage firm lost entire contents of our five-bed home

JEFF PRESTRIDGE: There ARE simple ways for trusts to boost their shares

FLOURISHING AFTER 50: Dad had a secret daughter for 49 years - now she's taking a share of everything including our family home

PM must stand firm and keep the two-child benefit cap – Welfare is already out of control

Britain is under threat but we will meet it with the biggest response seen in our lifetimes

SAUCY SECRETS: I did the 'unthinkable' after my best friend left her birthday party. Now I am keeping a huge secret from her - do I say anything?

David Cameron was like a big MAN-BABY after the Brexit vote, says SARAH VINE in her new bombshell memoir. Here she reveals when the ex-PM said with clenched teeth: 'For f***'s sake, Sarah…you have to get your husband under control'

Clueless Labour’s class war against Farage won’t stop him… Reform voters care about policies not what school he went to

The bin incident at my flat that made me realise Bossy Britain is everywhere and why it’s only likely to get much worse

Hamas’ cease-fire ‘counteroffer’ is just a demand for Israel to give up the war

PETER HITCHENS: Now we know why the police are too busy to bother with all those shoplifters and thugs

DAN HODGES: I know the real reason Keir Starmer will never set foot in a truly working-class area ever again...

Why it’s time to start treating revenge as the potentially deadly addiction that it is

NYC’s cyclist crime and more: Letters to the Editor — June 1, 2025

Why American celebrities ‘escaping’ Trump by fleeting to Britain may be in for a big surprise

My wife has been an angel since my heart attack. But she'd leave me if she ever found out the reason why I collapsed that day: SAUCY SECRETS

Inside the brutal fallout of Sussan Ley dumping FOUR women from her cabinet - and fresh humiliation for the Greens after election disaster: PETER VAN ONSELEN

Letters to the Editor: Inmate firefighters deserve the chance of a meaningful career after incarceration

I walked these by-election streets - and discovered why Reform are on the rise

Russia’s war in Ukraine must end, here’s how it could happen

I’m getting tired of playing the cost of living game

Today's Steven Camley Cartoon