Inside the V&A: First glimpse of what’s in store

● Around 300 star objects have been selected from 12,000 potential exhibitions for the dedicated Scottish design galleries

in three dedicated Scottish design galleries dominating the upper floors of the museum, which will open “in the second half of 2018”.

Some 300 objects have been selected from 12,0000 potential exhibits for displays planned to “highlight and celebrate the influence of Scottish design at home and abroad.”

Furniture, textiles, metalwork and ceramics to the latest digital technology, innovations in the health service, modern-day architecture and fashion trends in the Scottish galleries, which will feature exhibits largely drawn from the V&A’S own archives.

The oldest exhibit, which dates back to the 1480s, will be a book of Christian text, prayers and psalms featuring several Scottish saints, which was made in northern France, but was latterly owned by a minister in St Andrews, who sold it a century ago to raise money for the Red Cross.

Among the most up-to-date will be a dress by Edinburghborn fashion designer Holly Fulton and a new videogame by the Secret Experiment, a Glasgow-based studio, which is being released next year.

Other objects will include an Indianthronechaircreatedby Berwickshire painter Robert Home, a bookcase by “Glasgow Style” designer George Logan for the city’s International Exhibition in 1901 and part of a Glasgow tearoom designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Dundee’s famous comic strip heritage will be celebrated with Dennis the Menace artwork created for a 1960 edition of the Beano, the creation of the wellington boot in Edinburgh in the mid-19th century will be recalled and an elephant case designed by Leithborn Paolozzi for the Kirkcaldy linoleum company Nairn Floors in the early 1970s will all be on display. A model of Canadian architect Frank Gehry’s groundbreaking design of the Maggie’s centre in Dundee – his first building in the UK – will also be included.

The permanent displays, which will be regularly updated to take account of the latest design developments, will take up around a third of the museum’s exhibition space, the remainder devoted to a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions, although these are being kept firmly under wraps for now.

V&A Dundee director Philip Long said: “Scotland has an extraordinarily rich design heritage and continues to lead the way with creative and inspiring innovations.

“The Scottish design galleries, which will be at the heart of V&A Dundee, will highlight and celebrate the influence of Scottish design both at home and abroad.

“These permanent galleries will explore the design process, the international diaspora of Scottish design and the role of design to effect societal change.

“The majority of the objects will come from the worldrenowned V&A collections and have never been displayed in Scotland before. Others will be loans from collections and designers across Scotland.”

Joanna Norman, lead curator of the Scottish design galleries, said: “The influence of Scottish design is not limited to one country, it has been felt around the world.

“The Scottish design galleries will transform people’s knowledge of Scotland’s legacy of design and innovation.

“Drawing on the V&A’S world-famous collections of art, design and performance, it has taken several years of careful research to establish this unique collection of objects which together will tell a fascinating and relatively unknown story.

“Over the coming months we will continue to confirm more of the objects that will go on display when the museum opens next year.”