Sherry Harper-McCombs
Costume Design & Technology Commission

Photos and descriptions of costume storage facilities (no matter how small or disorganized the supervisor may think their costume storage may be!) are still being sought for the Costume Storage Solutions Database. As everyone gets ready to begin a new school year and/or production season, think about getting digital photos of costume storage facilities before things start to get too hectic with restocking and organizing.

The database is up and running with representative costume storage facilities large, small, and somewhere in between. To access the information, click on "guest account" and then choose "costume" from the list that appears.

One of the newest entries is the Washington National Opera's amazing and well-organized facility in Washington, D.C. The Opera's facility has more square footage than most could ever hope for, but utilizes many clever organizational techniques possible at much smaller operations.

The database currently has over 20 facilities represented, and the USITT Costume Commission would love to hear from more of its members.

The Washington National Opera facility is notable for many positive things, but one of the negatives is that it is the only opera company currently represented in the database. There are no ballet companies yet. The database will be much more useful if it has a wide representation of many sizes and types of costuming operations, so give serious consideration to photographing and entering your facility.

Photographs can be taken with any digital camera quickly and easily. Descriptions of the facility can be brief or detailed, but the more information, the more helpful it is to others.

Loading photos and information into the database is as easy as using Yahoo's Flicker website and takes very little time. For information concerning how to upload photos and information or to recommend a facility for the database, e-mail Sherry Harper-McCombs at harpermc@dickinson.edu.

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