Dundee’s silvery crown
Opening date of 15 September announced as finishing touches are put to the city’s new waterfront attraction
With its reflection glinting in the River Tay, the V&A Museum of Design Dundee – Scotland’s first design museum – will open to the public on 15 September.
Designed by internationally acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the £80.1m V&A Dundee is at the centre of the £1 billion transformation of the waterfront, once part of the city’s docklands.
A lavish celebration of the golden age of ocean travel will be unveiled at Dundee’s long-awaited V&A Museum of Design when it opens to the public in the autumn.
Rarely-seen artefacts, outfits, works of art, furniture and fittings from some of the world’s greatest liners will be showcased at the city’s £80 million waterfront attraction, which will finally be unveiled in September after more than a decade in the planning.
Scotland’s newest architectural landmark, which has been masterminded by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma over the last eight years, is at the heart of a £1 billion regeneration of the city’s waterfront.
An official public opening date of Saturday 15 September has been announced, but still to be announced are details of an official opening celebrations, which is expected to be one of the most high-profile events during Scotland’s Year of Young People.
V&A Dundee director Philip Long said: “I can’t go into the details at the moment, but we are planning something significant for the opening, as I think would be expected. It is a major project in Scotland and we want to celebrate that.
“There is great deal of planning and discussions across the city going on behind the scenes in preparation for the opening event. It’s going to be a great moment for the city and everything that has been achieved. The opening event will reflect the ambition of V&A Dundee and be a showcase of creativity.”
The first visitors to V&A Dundee will be able see the largest remaining fragment of the Titanic, from the firstclass lounge of the doomed vessel, as well as a diamond and pearl tiara which was saved from the lusitania when it was sunk in a German u-boat attack off the Irish coast in the First World War.
Charting the evolution of the world’s “great floating palaces” between the mid-19th century and the early 20th century, the first ever international exhibition to be devoted to ocean liners will feature the luggage used by the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson after he abdicated in 1936.
The exhibition, which will draw extensively from the V& a’ sown fashion collections, will feature a Christian Dior suit worn by actress Marlene Dietrich as she arrived in New York on board the Queen Elizabeth in 1950, a 1930s yellow swimsuit worn by the wealthy Londoner Lady Swettenham on her travels, and a “flapper dress” by French designer Jeanne Lanvin, which belonged to Emilie Grigsby, a regular American passenger between the UK and New York in the 1910s and 1920s.
More than 250 paintings, sculptures, ship and engine models, wall panels, furniture, fashion, textiles, photographs, posters and film footage will be brought together from public and private collections around the world.
The exhibition, which will explore Scotland’s part in the design and development of ocean liners, will feature the Stanley Spencer painting The Riveters from the 1941 series Shipbuilding on the Clyde, commissioned to record the industries involved in the Second World War effort.
Sophie Mckinlay, director of exhibitions at V&A Dundee, said: “Visitors will get a sense of what it would have been like to experience life on board an ocean liner. There is a lot to be said about the romance of these floating cities which are a wonderful example of a totally designed experience.
“As well as the glamour and hugely successful marketing of ocean liners, the exhibition will also venture into the engine rooms of these impressive vessels, exploring the innovations in engineering that so radically changed the way people travel.
“This exhibition demonstrates how design covers such a huge range of disciplines drawing upon collections, skills and expertise as well as exploring the design and cultural impact of the ocean liner in a way that has never been done before.”
Exhibition curator Ghislaine Wood said: “This exhibition has been four years in the making and from the outset research for the V&A Dundee project played a key role in its development. It highlights how Scottish design and engineering innovation was at the centre of the spectacular evolution of the ocean liner. It is truly fitting that it will be the first V&A Dundee exhibition.”
The inside of Dundee’s new museum is expected to be kept firmly under wraps until the week of the opening. However it has just been confirmed that Turner Prize-nominated artist Ciara Phillips will be creating a site-specific installation for
the upper floor of the museum - inspired by the V&A’S vast Scottish design collection.
Two of the four galleries will have permanent displays telling “the story of Scotland’s outstanding design heritage.” Around 300 objects spanning more than 500 years will showcase everything from furniture, textiles, metalwork and ceramics to the latest digital technology, innovations in the health service, modernday architecture and fashions.
Going on display will be a 500-year-old book of Christian text, prayers and psalms featuring several Scottish saints, a Jacobite garter, a Highland pistol, a pair of “Wellington Boots,” a Dennis the Menace artwork from the famous comic strip and an elephantshaped case designed by artist Eduardo Paolozzi.
Also included will be an Indian throne chair created by a Berwickshire painter Robert Home, a bookcase created by “Glasgow Style” designer George Logan for the city’s International Exhibition in 1901 and a recreation of part of a tearoom designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Mr Long added: “After many years of planning, we’re absolutely thrilled to announce the date of the new museum’s opening. In just eight months we will be opening the doors and welcoming our first visitors. V&A Dundee is set to be a vital new cultural organisation for Dundee, the UK and beyond, helping to change understanding of just how important design and creativity are to people’s lives.
“V&A Dundee brings something new to Scotland. It is the country’s first museum dedicated to design, which visitors will be able to experience and get involved with in very many ways. Particularly important is that the new museum enables major V&A exhibitions to be seen more widely by more people across the UK.”
During a recent visit to the site, Kuma told of his hopes that it will become both a “living room” and “community centre” for the city. His striking design, which has been compared to a ship, is said to have been inspired by the cliff-faces that Kuma, who is working on Tokyo’s stadium for the 2020 Olympics, found on Scotland’s east coast near Arbroath. Around 2,500 cast stone panels have been hung on to the exterior walls of the museum to try to replicate the landscape Kuma saw.
The V&A Museum of Design in Dundee was designed to look like the prow of a ship pointing out into the Firth of Tay, so it is apt that the opening exhibition will be Ocean Liners: Speed & Style.
Visitors will get an idea of what life was like for the wealthiest passengers on board these “great floating palaces”, but also for those who worked in the depths of the engine room, in what organisers have promised will be a “breath-taking” show. If the outside of the dramatic museum building – part of a £1 billion redevelopment of the Dundee waterfront – is anything to go by, we will not be disappointed. As its contents are revealed, excitement is growing in Scotland and beyond about the opening in September. The Wall Street Journal has named Dundee Scotland’s “coolest city” and one of the top 10 places in the world to visit in 2018, alongside Shanghai and Madagascar.
Eight years in the planning, the new V&A could become a global attraction that puts the city very much on the map.
A lot of money and hope has been invested in the project and so far the signs have all been positive. The Scotsman can’t wait.