By Franklin Vagnone, Museum Maverick for the Long Island Session
As I wandered the, at times, confusing hallways & rooms of the Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay I first took notice of the typical reproduction carpets and wallcoverings. I was taken upstairs into the third-floor collections spaces which is where I found core of this site. I asked Jessica Pearl, the Collections Manager what her favorite item was in the collection, and she searched to find a pair of very sexy shoes. The shoes were wrapped in acid-free paper and encased within an acid free box. As she pulled them out, I could see why she loved them. We admired them and returned them back to their mausoleum.
This experience perfectly symbolized why these “Creativity Incubators” are so needed and successful. We are all given the chance to find, see, and use collections items in new and compelling ways. Things that have been hidden behind a screen of professional stewardship, or relegated to a stage set within a period room, can now be pulled aside and made more substantive by collaborative context with other items. This is the stuff that curators are made of, and often find it hard to do; that is to use their incredible knowledge base to expand a narrative and tell more powerful stories.
This experience perfectly symbolized why these “Creativity Incubators” are so needed and successful. We are all given the chance to find, see, and use collections items in new and compelling ways. Things that have been hidden behind a screen of professional stewardship, or relegated to a stage set within a period room, can now be pulled aside and made more substantive by collaborative context with other items. This is the stuff that curators are made of, and often find it hard to do; that is to use their incredible knowledge base to expand a narrative and tell more powerful stories.
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