Avenir Museum grant enabling photography of collections objects

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A pair of Japanese Geta sandals sit on a white background. They are black with a orange strap.
Geta Sandals with Shibori Silk Straps, Black Enamel over Wood Soles, Japan, 20th century. Donor: Mrs. Warren H. Leonard, Avenir Museum no. 1983.7.63. Shibori is a method of resist dyeing. These shoes and other examples of shibori are featured in Resist: Tie Dye Practices from Around the World, Feb, 13 - July 30 at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising.

Story by Gabrielle Friesen, Collections Database Coordinator 

The Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising at Colorado State University has been awarded a grant by the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums to support documentation of the museum’s collection. This grant supports the purchase of supplies and infrastructure for photography of the Avenir’s collection of global footwear, which represents cultures from Asia, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, and the attachment of the photographic records to the EmbARK database.

The EmbARK database is the digital platform the museum uses to document and track its collections. Attaching images to the digital collection allows for greater search capabilities by staff, which helps facilitate exhibition planning, as well as student and community researchers.

A camera is set up to take photos of Geta sandals.
Behind the scenes of the global footwear photography project.

Expanding Avenir’s collection library

The Avenir Museum stewards clothing and textiles from all over the world. However, currently the museum is most known for its collection of European-American designer clothing. The global footwear collection is an important but underutilized portion of the collection. By focusing photography efforts on the global footwear collection, the museum can provide increased awareness and access to a portion of the global clothing collections. 

In addition, the global footwear photography project will help build towards long-term museum access goals. Within the next few years, the museum plans to launch a public digital collection database, which will allow visitors to see photographed objects from the collection online. A digitally accessible collection will allow visitors to view pieces, even when not on exhibition. Photographing the global footwear collection will help start the digitization process that will lead to a public digital collection database, which will increase the Avenir Museum’s ability to tell stories of dress and textiles that inspire respectful curiosity and connection across peoples, places, and cultures. 

The Avenir Museum is in the Department of Design and Merchandising, part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences. 

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Avenir FeatureAvenir Museum of Design and MerchandisingCollege of Health and Human SciencesDepartment of Design and Merchandising

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