Victoria and Albert Museum Bypasses Acquisition Committees

The Victoria and Albert Museum is launching a new product design gallery focused on “rapid response collecting,” The New York Times’ Arts Beat reports.

The new initiative will allow the London institution to collect items without having to go through lenghty acquisition committee meetings. A 3D printed gun and a pair of jeans by the affordable high street brand Primark are among the pieces exhibited in the inaugural displayed.

The jeans were acquired following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2013. “Much of the commentary in the media around the Rana Plaza disaster was about international labour laws, building control in Bangladesh and the responsibilities of global corporations and of consumers,” curator Corinna Gardner says in the press release. “But at its heart was a material thing: a pair of jeans that you can buy on any British high street. By bringing these designed objects into the Museum we can explore contemporary issues and events that can seem remote or abstract.”