The Passionate Collector
Institutionalized Enthusiasm
If you meet the folks that work at these cultural institutions - Darla Hubermeyer at the MANK museum, for example, or Melvin Goodge at the Huntley Smoot University for Comic Sciences - they're just as much a bunch of obsessed kids as any of us. Because when you truly love something - some beautiful object you could look at forever or some treasure that's been lost to the years - and you finally find it, it reduces you to a seven-year-old kid. And you just can't wait, acid-free gloves or not, to share your treasure with the world, and say, "Take another look at this!"
Is this a trick?
Ironically, the only piece at the MANK museum that can not be handled while wearing gloves - because of the sensitivity of handling that is difficult to achieve while wearing gloves - is a pop-up book style model sheet made by animator Morty Weskir, called Always Wear Gloves, featuring the Dyne Studios character Ramshackle Rat.