What makes an object worth keeping?
In this episode, Kathryn sits down with artist, filmmaker, and collector Jessica Oreck, founder of the Office of Collecting & Design, a traveling museum devoted to the diminutive, the forgotten, the misplaced, and the unusual.
Together they explore the hidden lives of objects, the memories they awaken, and why the seemingly insignificant artifacts of everyday life often become the most meaningful. Their conversation wanders through collecting, letters, museums, Virginia Woolf, Proust, the Japanese concept of mono no aware, the beauty of impermanence, and the surprising importance of leisure, wonder, and attention.
They discuss:
• Why ordinary objects often outlast precious ones
• The "residue of attention" and how use creates meaning
• How collections become portals to memory
• The relationship between beauty, grief, and impermanence
• Why women, artists, and dreamers need spaces of their own
• The value of everyday rituals and beautiful objects
• The enduring magic of the postal service and correspondence
• What it means to create a legacy in an age of infinite content
This is a conversation for collectors, letter writers, artists, nostalgists, and anyone who has ever kept a small treasure simply because it felt impossible to throw away.
SHOW NOTES
Office of Collecting & Design:
https://officeofcollecting.com/about
Museum Tour Dates:
https://officeofcollecting.com/tour-dates
Treasure Club:
https://officeofcollecting.com/subscribe/treasure-club
Decoder Club:
https://officeofcollecting.com/subscribe/decoderclub
Office of Collecting & Design Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/office.of.collecting/
