Museums tend to take the long view when it comes to acquiring works, but the Victoria & Albert Museum here has announced that a new gallery opening this summer will be dedicated to “rapid response collecting.” That means the kind of items that can mostly be bought without having an acquisitions committee meeting.

Among the artifacts that will go on display are an Ikea soft toy, a new lightweight lift cable, a 3-D printed gun and a pair of Primark jeans. All, according to the news release, are objects that “help the V&A engage in a timely way with important events that shape, or are shaped by design, architecture and technology.”

The jeans, acquired after the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2013, are an example of this, said Corinna Gardner, the curator of contemporary product design and of Rapid Response Collecting at the V&A.

“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,” Ms. Gardner said in the news 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.”

Lucy Hawes, a spokeswoman, said in an email that as far as the Victoria & Albert is aware the idea is unique to the museum. “Of course that’s not to say that other museums don’t collect contemporary objects, but Rapid Response is a new strand to the V&A’s policy,” she wrote.

> via NYT