The Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware

Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware

ABOUT THE MUSEUM:

The Division Museum of Ceramics and Glassware is part of the fine tradition of museums and private collecting institutions in New York City. Located at 141 Division Street in Chinatown, New York, the Museum is the only institution in New York City to focus its collection on contemporary ceramics and glassware.

Through a sociological study of collecting impulses in contemporary culture, the museum's initial researchers learned that owning a collection of ceramics or glassware proved to be a common denominator of both collecting and non-collecting individuals. Within the fields of both historical archaeology and anthropology the discovery of ceramic fragments have come to define the activities and values of lost cultures. We preserve these contemporary artifacts in the service of future historical impact.

Each item owned by the museum has been de-accessioned from the collections of the Friends and Founders of the Museum. While the collecting interests of the Friends vary immensely in terms of subject matter, specialization, and enthusiasm, each individual possesses a large enough group of ceramic and glass items to be considered a collection worthy of archiving. These items have been de-accessioned from their former owners because they are cracked, chipped, or shattered. It is the mission of the museum to preserve these artifacts in their current condition. As a research institution, the museum serves to preserve evidence of the material devolution of Ceramic and Glassware collections in the Twenty First Century

We gratefully rely on the benevolence of The Friends, who generously engage in the act of fragmenting their own consummated collections to forward the museum's pursuit of completeness.

via ArtCal