The museum, opened in 1981, is housed in the spaces of the historic Burano Lace School, founded in 1872 by Countess Andriana Marcello to recover and revive a centuries-old tradition. After the closure of the school, a Consortium created by Venetian public entities and the Andriana Marcello Foundation-which had been established in the meantime-began, starting in 1978, a careful activity of rediscovery and cultural enhancement of this art: the archives of the ancient School, rich in important documents and drawings, were reorganized and catalogued; the premises were renovated and transformed into an exhibition space. Thus the Lace Museum was born. It displays more than one hundred precious specimens from the School's rich collection, as well as important evidence of Venetian production from the 16th to the 20th century. Included since 1995 in the Civic Museums of Venice, this space now offers not only the exhibition of pieces of great value, but also the possibility of observing from life the working techniques proposed by the lace-makers, still custodians of this art and present in the morning at the museum. Also available to scholars is the archive, an important source of historical-artistic documentation, with drawings, photos and various iconographic evidence.