From Storage to Studio

What inspiration awaits within a museum? In this rare venture, a group of 14 Resident Artists from The Clay Studio worked with 7 curators to explore the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s art storage vaults.This catalog—and its accompanying exhibition at The Clay Studio—reveals the thoughts, inspirations, and creative drive shared by the artists and curators. After researching and handling artifacts in an art museum’s storage, each artist chose a museum object and went back to their studio to create a new work of art in response. The resulting artworks, beautifully photographed here, are accompanied by the artists’ thoughtful reactions to the experience, along with candid views of the works in progress in their studios. The curators, too, describe their “aha moments” in three luminous essays. For both artists and curators, this journey from storage to studio in Philadelphia has been revelatory and points the way to exciting future possibilities for artists, curators, museums, and gallery visitors everywhere.