British Art Collections – Day 1 V&A

During the summer of 2023 we are offering a series of linked but separate study days on British Art Collections. Each day can be booked individually. We also intend to include some small group visits to individual galleries. These will be organised separately and subject to demand.

This series will examine the history of some of the UK’s greatest art institutions: what or who inspired their foundation, where their collections came from and how their buildings were designed. What audiences did the founders imagine and what ideas were they trying to impart – and how have those audiences and ideas changed through the years and for the modern era? Explore artworks and exhibitions, meet the personalities and discover the stories behind the façades of the nation’s collections from London to Edinburgh and from Liverpool to Cambridge.

Programme for Day 1

V&A Museum, London

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is the largest museum of art and design anywhere in the world and one of the most popular visitor destinations, locally, nationally and globally. From its beginnings in the nineteenth century it has challenged preconceptions and set standards for what museums should be and achieve; constantly controversial, it has never been ashamed to provoke scholarly debate or court popular favour, an attitude which continues to this day.

Lectures

1   A book that is always open: making a museum in Brompton

2   Full of marvellous treasures: the V&A enters the twentieth century

3   Collections in search of a home: V&A outreach in Bethnal Green and Covent Garden

4   FuturePlan, future proof? The V&A today and tomorrow