What’s New? Recent Acquisitions to the Textiles and Clothing Museum Collection
What’s New? Recent Acquisitions to the Textiles and Clothing Museum Collection
August 20, 2018 – October 12, 2018 / MARY ALICE GALLERY
Curated by Janet Fitzpatrick with Suzanne LeSar and Amanda Quinn
What’s New? This isn’t intended to be a rhetorical question; it’s the subject of this exhibition. The use of the word “new” is relative in the field of collecting museum artifacts. It can indicate the age of the objects themselves, reveal a fresh interpretation grounded in the latest research, and/or refer to a museum’s most recent acquisitions. With a current collection of over 9,500 objects that has grown and developed since the early 1900s, the Textiles and Clothing Museum is employing the word “new” to identify objects acquired over the last five years. Through the practice of acquisition and accession, a museum takes legal ownership of an object with the express intent of using it for their collection, and then formalizes the process by registering the object in the museum’s permanent record. The forty-three garments, publications, and tools on exhibition are a selected sampling of the 388 objects added to the TCM collection since January 2014.
A big thank you to all of our donors throughout the years. Whether the TCM has benefitted from your financial gifts or your donations of textiles and clothing to our collection, the continued support is most appreciated. We especially want to recognize the late William H. Reinhardt Jr, without whose generosity the TCM’s Mary Alice Gallery may not exist. The gallery is a tribute to his wife, Mary Alice Anderson Reinhardt, a graduate of what was then the Textiles and Clothing department. This exhibition is dedicated to their altruism and her love of fashion.
Dedication
This exhibition is dedicated to two of our donors, the late William H. Reinhardt, Jr. and Mary Alice Anderson Reinhardt.