Dress-like museum rises from Olympic park site
Two new buildings on site of 2012 sports event will be nation’s biggest museum project for a generation
IT HAD its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851, whose attendees included Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, and the provenance of its latest addition is no less auspicious.
The first, futuristic visions of the new premises of the Victoria and Albert Museum were released yesterday. They will be home to 250,000 treasures, unlocked from storage and many placed on display for the first time in decades.
The enormous twin buildings – one inspired by the design of a Spanish Balenciaga dress – are a legacy of the 2012 London Olympics, and will be constructed on the former site at Stratford waterfront, as part of what is known as the Olympic Cultural Quarter.
Estimated at £1.1bn, it will be the biggest museum project for a generation. The V&A described it as a “powerhouse of culture, education, innovation and growth” and said it would revolutionise the way its renowned collections of art, design and performance ephemera were accessed and experienced.
The new buildings, which will supplement the museum’s HQ in South Kensington and its recently-opened branch in Dundee, will be a 10-minute walk apart.
One will encompass a research storage facility, to be housed in the former Olympic broadcasting centre. The other will have large galleries, one them curated in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
They are expected to open in 2023 and to welcome around 750,000 visitors a year.
The museum’s present store, at the government-owned Blythe House in west London, is being sold, with the £50m proceeds being handed to the curators.
Tristram Hunt, the former Labour politician who took over as director of the V&A at the beginning of last year, said the museum had been invited participate in the Olympic regeneration programme in 2013 by the then mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
“On the one hand it’s incredibly exciting. But you have to enter with your eyes open. It’s a great opportunity, although a strategic move to a
multi-site organisation is not without risks,” he told The Art Newspaper.
The project is being funded by the mayor’s London Legacy Development Corporation, which aims to pay for it through the sale of housing.
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Wright, said: “We are also providing government funding to help move the museum’s world class treasures in storage at Blythe House into some of these new, modern facilities that will help further boost the V&A’s public displays.”
He added: “The V&A showcases Britain’s cultural history. These ambitious plans will bring the museum and its vast collection to new audiences and help continue the economic regeneration that east London has undergone since 2012.”
The V&A’s deputy director, Tim Reeve, said the new research facility would give visitors a “360 degree view” of museum life, allowing them to see staff at work on future exhibitions.
He said: “From the moment of an object’s acquisition, through its conservation, the research, enquiry and debate that follow, to its display – this will revolutionise how people experience and are inspired by our collection.”
This will bring the museum and its vast collection to new audiences. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright