Hello, all - A few days ago, I finally took advantage of my relative proximity to New York City to go see the Gems of European Lace exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This opened back in the summer and I know was mentioned here on this list at that time. In addition, Jeri posted a thoughtful review after her own visit in November. For those interested, here is the link to the exhibit's website: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/european-lace It closes on January 13th, so there are precious few days to go see it in person if you are able. I'm posting now for two reasons: one, to publicly thank Devon and anyone else on this list who may have been involved with making this exhibit happen, as well as Jeri for her further information, which I did print out and bring with me (as she had suggested). The second reason for this message is about my wandering thoughts since this visit. Before I went, I searched "lace" on the Met's collection website and made note of what was listed "on view." In addition to the pieces in this exhibit and the inevitable paintings and such with the word lace in their descriptions, I found four lace pieces on display in other permanent galleries in the museum. Once there, I did go and find those pieces. Perhaps regular Met goers could clarify this, but they seemed to be in places where they were on display "permanently" - i.e. European decorative arts galleries, in a case with other objects. None were particularly close to the glass or easy to study in person. As mentioned by others, the Met's collections on line have great zooming qualities and I was able to see these pieces better, so to speak, on my computer. But, still, I greatly appreciated that a typical visitor through the museum could have some encounter with lace, no matter how small the scale (four pieces, not counting the special one gallery exhibit closing next week, spread throughout that great giant of a museum.) It got me wondering whether there is any lace on display on a regular basis in any other museum in the US. I'm not talking about any special exhibit, nor am I referring to collections that could only be seen by researchers and by appointment. I just mean being able to encounter it in some casual way, that a visitor might stop and take a second look. I did a lot of people watching in the museum and it is interesting to see what people spend lots of time staring at and being with and what gets brushed aside with a quick walk through. And, of course, everyone is different in their interests and their likes. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what else was in the case with the two lace pieces in gallery 503, because I simply do not remember. Not where my eye was focused. But, there were other moments in the museum when I DID focus my eye on new things or new directions that I hadn't realized would appeal - not until I encountered that particular piece or object or painting. Anyway, I got myself off on quite a tangent over the last few days - googling museums in the US, getting the sense of how much of their collection is or is not online, whether their search feature has an "item on view" button to narrow your search. All I can say is that I couldn't find any museum that apparently had a piece of lace on view somewhere. That's not to say that it doesn't exist - I just may not be able to get that info via the websites. In particular, I was interested in the some of the museums of tours of recent Conventions, knowing that they had lace collections (Minneapolis Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, National Museum of American History, etc.) So, here is the guts of my question: do you know of any lace on display in a "permanent" sort of way in any major museum in the US? Even if it is just one or two pieces? I imagine that there are likely many answers to this question in European countries, but how about in the states? An off shoot of this, perhaps provoking some responses to this posting, is some of the old postings I found when I originally searched the Arachne archives to find Jeri's review of the exhibit. Whatever search terms I put in gave me some wonderful emails to read through from some years back, I think when the Ratti Textile Center at the Met first opened, and comments made by many about what types of exhibits draw the crowds into the museums and how museums make the decisions of what to put on display to get those crowds. Sadly, lace seems pretty low on the list. For those who have made it through this long post, thanks for reading! arlene in NJ
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