V&A for Dundonians too!

I WAS delighted to hear the news last week that the V&A Dundee has opted to extend the Dundee Tapestry exhibition, which has been widely popular with Dundonians and other visitors.

It is now closed after originally opening in January, but it will be coming back for a second run in the summer, and it gives the chance for more people to see what this brilliant art project has to offer.

The Dundee Tapestry is an exhibition I am very familiar with as I oversaw it come to Verdant Works when I started out as a social media assistant at Dundee Heritage Trust.

The tapestries in question are amazing, they celebrate our city and the industries that have helped it flourish. I have always been deeply impressed with the detail and time put into making them.

My personal favourite definitely has to be the comics and characters tapestry, celebrating Dundee’s brilliant comic book industry, with appearances from Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger. The detail is so amazing on this one.

Another favourite has got to be the Dundee Gangs, seeing all the gang jumpers stitched and the names of them is brilliant, from the Lochee Fleet to the Kirkton Huns.

The stitchers really have put a great deal of thought into this amazing project.

With the tapestry exhibition helping bring more than 80,000 people through the doors of the museum in the space of four months, it was a no-brainer to extend it for longer.

The V&A Dundee really knows how to do Dundee-themed exhibitions, and do them very well, and this is something which has been the case with the Sincerely Valentines exhibition, the Big Weekend Experience and now with the Dundee Tapestry.

I believe that the V&A

Dundee needs to do more of this, because it does draw in a crowd, and the Dundee Tapestry opens the doors to many more exhibition ideas, especially originating from the community.

You could have exhibitions with a specific focus on Dundee’s comic books, or scientific discoveries. It would be great to have Dundee-themed displays running alongside the major flagship exhibitions, with Kimono: Kiyoto To Catwalk being the latest, opening up this week – another exciting exhibition coming to the museum. I am looking forward to visiting.

But why not now and again host a major exhibition about a Dundee topic in the temporary exhibition space too? It would be great.

I hope the museum can continue building on Dundeethemed exhibitions because for the V&A Dundee to be a success for the city, it needs to also tailor its offering to Dundonians.

The V&A Dundee may be Scotland’s design museum but it mustn’t forget that it is also Dundee’s design museum too.

A piece of the Dundee Tapestry.