Cabinet Stories: Curators in the Community

Abstract

Cabinet Stories was a touring exhibition and research project aimed at audiences with restricted access to the arts, with a singular cabinet housing a series of small, interchangeable, displays devised, in turn, by seven curators. This traveling show enabled an intimate space for conversation between audiences and fashion curators, who stepped outside of the museum context to lead workshops, as an extension of their displays, within complex environments which are closed to the public namely: a women’s prison; a medical center for patients with borderline personality disorder; a home for older people. The final venue was public-facing with the displays presented within a charity shop in east London. This article presents the research outcomes of this year-long outreach project and reflects upon museological theory and exhibition-making practice to contextualize the contribution fashion displays can make to wellbeing. Documentation of the curators’ authorship of their displays, and the audience interpretation is recorded, alongside the work of the participants as curator through the Our Cabinet Story display. This article culminates with the public installation within a charity shop and highlights the on-going legacy of this work and the contribution fashion curation can make to care.