Visible Storage/Study Center Opens at the Brooklyn Museum

NEW YORK CITY

:Museum curators are often frustrated when making the final selection of items for an exhibition. Driving their irritation is the fact that integral objects can end up remaining out of view and in storage solely due to space constraints of the gallery. The crux of the matter - and a truism that has been accepted for centuries - is that only a fraction of any major institution's collections is on view at any one time. That is, until now.

The frustration factor has been lessened somewhat with an innovative exhibition that recently opened at the Brooklyn Museum. The concept is fairly straightforward and the name quite apropos; place the items in storage in tasteful, yet compact, displays on clear shelves and behind clear walls, and voila! instant exhibition, or, as the museum likes to call it, "Visible Storage."

A large selection from the reserves of American art housed in the Brooklyn Museum is now on permanent view at the Visible Storage/Study Center. The new facility, which opened this month, completes the installation of the museum's Luce Center for American Art. The main galleries of the Luce Center opened in 2001, and are called "American Identities: A New Look." They integrate decorative arts with painting and sculpture against a colorful background of pinks and purples. The leisurely arrangement comprises 350 objects dispersed through 12,000 square feet.