Historic Dollhouses Capture 300 Years of British Domestic Life
The National Building Museum in Washington DC has a new exhibit. On loan from the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in London, this new exhibit called “Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse” is a collection of 12 historical dollhouses that offers a unique glimpse into British residential architecture and home decor for the past 300 years.
“The homes show developments in architecture and design, encompassing country mansions, the Georgian town house, suburban villas, newly-built council estates, and high-rise apartments. Many of the houses, their furniture and dolls have been specially conserved for the exhibition, with around 1,900 objects being restored over two years in the V&A Museum’s conservation department,” says the Museum’s website.
From the press release:
“Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse” will be on view from May 21, 2016 through January 22, 2017.
via Nagonthelake
“The homes show developments in architecture and design, encompassing country mansions, the Georgian town house, suburban villas, newly-built council estates, and high-rise apartments. Many of the houses, their furniture and dolls have been specially conserved for the exhibition, with around 1,900 objects being restored over two years in the V&A Museum’s conservation department,” says the Museum’s website.
From the press release:
Small Stories explores the history of British domestic life and provides a miniature-sized, up-close view of developments in architecture and design, from a Georgian town house and suburban mansion, to a 1960s high-rise and a Le Corbusier-style white villa. Displayed chronologically, most of the houses come complete with period furniture and interior fittings. Each house is displayed to reflect a particular moment in history. Visitors can use buttons alongside the cases to activate the audio narration and light up the characters as they talk.
Building on the historical realities and escapist fantasies of dollhouse play, the Museum commissioned artists and designers from across the country to create rooms on a miniature scale for the Dream House in the final gallery of the exhibition. Artists were encouraged to explore any time period-past, present, or future-for their tiny world and their three-dimensional room could take the form of any space in the house. The 15-inch-square wooden boxes range from the aspirational and whimsical, to the fantastical, technological and practical
“Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse” will be on view from May 21, 2016 through January 22, 2017.
via Nagonthelake
