RAPID RESPONSE COLLECTING: COVID-19

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the year 2020 has led to an uptick of rapid response collecting, particularly related to the pandemic.

Rapid response collecting is a fairly recent addition to museum collections management mandates with the goal being to collect the meaningful present. This has largely come from a shifting public and internal demand of what museums should provide their visitors. From the origin of museums in the 1800s, they have been a place where visitors can expect to encounter objects from the past, but now museums are placing a much greater emphasis on the present. Museums can be places where the public gathers to interact with contemporary history that directly impacts their lives.

A notable moment where rapid response collecting hit the mainstream and began to be recognized outside of the professional museum community was in 2017 after the Women’s March on Washington protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump. In response to the march, many museums collected the now-iconic pink pussyhats worn by protestors.

Protestors wearing pussyhats at the Women's March on Washington. (Source)

In 2020, rapid response collecting is how many museums have answered to the Covid-19 pandemic. After the initial global shut-down and the frantic development of online educational material, museums have been adding pandemic related objects to their collection.

A museum that took on a leading role in rapid response collecting in 2017 was the V&A, and this pattern continues today as they collect during the pandemic. Some of the objects that the V&A and other museums have collected include the obvious pandemic essentials, such as homemade facemasks, social distancing signs, ventilators, and heartwarming signs made by children. Other materials collected are oral histories from medical and essential workers, video footage of hospitals including a video created by a doctoral resident of Mount Sinai Queens —one of the worst-hit hospitals in New York City, and a cowbell that was rung every time a Covid patient was discharged from the Samaritan’s Purse Hospital, also in New York City.

Cowbell rung at Samaritan's Purse Hospital, now part of the New-York Historical Society's Collection. (Source)

Though there has been a very quick reaction by many museums to begin rapid response collecting, there are some museums that are taking measured steps to ensure that they are not reacting too quickly. Dean Oliver, the director of research at the Canadian Museum of History expressed that now, more than ever, there is a need to act deliberately, respectfully, and sensitively. The Royal B.C. Museum’s website has put a call out on its website for objects related to the pandemic, but they are holding off on formally accessioning any material at this time. This is a general cautiousness to ensure that they are acting appropriately and ethically, rather than making rash decisions.

Museums currently find themselves in something of a catch-22. If a museum chooses that they must undertake rapid response collecting at this time, they will be able to acquire a large amount of valuable material, but there is a possibility that the museum could take advantage of a bad situation, and may be treating donors unethically, be it unwittingly or not. However, if a museum decides to wait, ensuring that they are respectful and deliberate, there is the possibility that much of the material history of the pandemic may be lost forever. Joanne Orr of the Royal B.C. Museum expresses this concern, 

“Often in an emergency situation, things are thrown away, so a lot of things will be discarded at the end of this and we want to make sure we can capture examples of that.” 

Pandemic essentials, such as facemasks, are quickly being added to museum collections. (Source).

Museums are now faced with the difficult choice of collecting material but perhaps making best-practice mistakes, whereas on the other hand, if they decide to be cautious, there is a chance that they will never be able to collect material because it will already be gone. Museums are tasked with the difficult demand of practicing rapid response collecting, but balancing it with due diligence and ethical collecting practices.

Thank you to Chloé Houde for her assistance with this article.

RAPID RESPONSE COLLECTING: ADAPTING MUSEUM PRACTICE IN MOMENTS OF CRISIS

GREATEST HITS

BY: AMY INTRATOR

Welcome back to Greatest Hits, where I bring back some of the great work of past contributors! One of the greatest parts of writing this column is the chance to see what questions, ideas, and museum innovations were circulating in the recent past. So far, I have been shocked to find that the innovations in the museum world today aren’t so new after all.

My latest dive into the Musings archive led me all the way back to Alexandra Jeffery’s June 2014 post, Contemporary Collecting. I was absolutely shocked that this article, written over three years ago, discussed rapid response collecting, a trend I had thought was pretty new to the museum world.

Rapid response collecting, as Alexandra describes in her article, is a museum collecting practice that emphasizes collecting items of cultural significance in the moment that they become significant, so collecting items of the now in the now. I have become increasingly aware of this new approach to collecting, but I had no idea that the Victoria and Albert Museum had been engaging in rapid response collecting and exhibiting since 2014. The museum’s first rapid response exhibit in 2014 evolved into an ongoing collecting practice at the museum.

The V&A have an ongoing commitment to Rapid Response Collecting. Source.

The V&A Rapid Response Collecting team focuses on collecting items related to design and manufacturing that can provide a window into our world today. Alexandra’s article ponders how collecting and exhibiting objects of immediate significance could lead to valuable insights about contemporary culture, but she also questions if this collecting practice could lead to a devaluation of collections down the road when museums are faced with an overflow of ephemera of little value.

Alexandra’s article brings up some of the major issues facing museums that engage in rapid response collecting, especially concerns with collecting items that may not hold lasting significance, but a lot has changed since then. The practice of rapid response collecting has reacted to the massive political turmoil of our time.

A recent New York Times article In an Era of Strife, Museums Collect History as It Happens explores how the National Museum of African American History and Culture has responded to unfolding racial tension in America by collecting posters, buttons, clothing, gas masks and countless other objects from rallies, protests, and other historically significant moments. 

Two shirts collected by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Source.

In the article, Aaron Bryant, a curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, states “we are in times that require us to acknowledge that history is happening before our eyes.” Rapid response collecting acknowledges the significance of now, and it preserves these moments of extreme tension and strife for the future.

Rapid response collecting is one of the ways museums can reactively adapt to a society in turmoil, but I am left wondering how many museums will rise to the challenge of responding to the tensions of our times by adapting existing practices and adopting new approaches.

In the past year alone, museums have reacted to political upheaval in various ways. In February, when U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order that led to the now infamous "travel ban," the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts responded with #Art-Less. The project removed over 20% of the gallery's artwork, all of which was created or donated by immigrants, to show the devastating reality of a world without immigrant contributions. 

The Davis Museum temporarily removed artwork made or contributed by immigrants as a response to the travel ban. Source.

Project #Art-Less and rapid response collecting are more radical examples of museums adapting to political turmoil, but museums have also responded to crises within their societies in subtler ways like offering free admission on January 20th, the date of Trump's inauguration. 

Rapid response collecting, like other reactive developments in the museum world, is an opportunity for museums to enter into dialogue with contemporary life and present turmoil. I think it is critical for museums to respond and adapt to the society they exist within, and this new form of collecting offers an opportunity to reflect a rapidly changing society in the collections.

Do you think museums have a responsibility to adapt their practices? Should rapid response collecting be adopted by more institutions?