A new £13million museum in London will
serve the audience which needs it the most:
children for whom COVID-19 has stripped out
so much creative learning from critical
years, writes V&A director Tristram Hunt
a new £13m museum called Young V&A is being developed / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In the very heart of Bethnal Green, London, there sits a wonderhouse that has grown tired. The V&A Museum of Childhood, first opened in 1872, is a sumptuous, red-brick Victorian warehouse beloved of parents and grandparents, revelling in the nostalgia of Playmobil and Cabbage Patch Kids, Action Men and Pac Man consoles locked away in glass cabinets.
But it no longer serves the audience which needs it the most: the children for whom COVID-19 has stripped out so much creative learning from their critical years. That’s why we’re creating a new £13 million museum – called Young V&A – to ensure London remains the most creative city on the planet.
From the gaming industry to graphic design, from diplomacy to healthcare systems – we need creative people. Museum collections are there to be used, by all, as a sourcebook to feed the imagination. So, we must stop talking down a ‘lost’ generation and start providing the tools that young people need to shape fulfilling lives.
Our plan is to create a museum in Tower Hamlets – still the borough bearing the highest rates of child poverty – where children aged 0-14 can flex their cultural muscles. Levelling Up is not just about Mansfield and Stockton, it’s also about ensuring our capital provides decent opportunities for young people battling generational disadvantage. And building back better should not just encompass more catch-up maths and English lessons. Museums and schools need to work together to ensure that the strengths which kids need – teamwork; emotional literacy; oracy; and mental health resilience – are nurtured alongside a knowledge-rich curriculum. And the V&A, like all museums, has a role to play in this.
Our plan is to display 2,000 of the V&A’s most stunning artefacts – from objects in our collection such as the Japanese samurai suits to acquisitions, such as Team GB Olympian Sky Brown’s skateboard and a bionic 3D-printed Hero Arm, to kickstart the power of creativity. New galleries will focus on the practice of play in the early years, getting parents off their phones and on all-fours with their toddlers. Our Imagine gallery will use the legendary V&A Theatre and Performance collection – from Joey the Warhorse to original Superman costumes – to encourage aspiring actors, playwrights, poets, and dancers. It will also contain our stunning Rachel Whiteread installation of 150 dolls houses – always a highlight for role-playing youngsters. And then in our Design studio, we’ll give teenagers the skills and tools to become the next generation of makers and fashion-shapers – the Grayson Perrys, Stella McCartneys and Yinka Iloris – our country so clearly needs. Alongside it, a gaming space where digital tech will act as a convenor for creative teenagers, rather than a source of isolated, bedroom scrolling.
We’ll achieve all this in the footprint of our iconic iron-framed building (dating back to the Great Exhibition of 1851), with its beautiful mosaic floor. This has been a special place for so many east Londoners: a toddler’s first steps, a multi-generational day out, a Year-7 hang-out. When we reopen in summer 2023, we want the museum to be the public square, the shared space, for young Londoners and their creative ambitions.
The challenge is now. COVID-19 has severed too many young people from their outlets for social expression, play and connection to others. And the impact of the pandemic comes on the back of a terrible collapse in creative education, with ever fewer students taking arts subjects and a terrifying 67 per cent drop in Design and Technology GCSEs between 2010-2019. But as economist Andy Haldane has repeatedly stated, the jobs of the accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution will demand creativity as a ‘future skill,’ and yet only 34 per cent of the public feel the creative industries are for them. We need to give our communities the cultural confidence to flourish and succeed in such fast-moving times.
Great museums are as much about curating the future, as preserving the past. Pablo Picasso famously reflected that, ‘It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.’ Young V&A’s mission is to inspire the creative child of post-COVID London – which should exist in all of us.
Image Credit here if required
Tristram Hunt has been director of the V&A since 2017.
Tristram Hunt opinion published with the kind permission of the Evening Standard newspaper
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2021 issue 4
Editor's letter: Eco drivers
Therme Group and The Eden Project are going global, on an environmental mission says Magali Robathan
AM People: Julia Baird
On why her brother John Lennon would have loved the Strawberry Field attraction and the work it’s doing for the local community
AM People: Åsa Caap
The thrill of opening the Space Stockholm digital culture centre
Interview: David Harland & Sir Tim Smit
With projects underway around the world, the Eden Project is going global with its call to arms for the future of the planet
Museums: Getting creative
How the Young V&A will aim to provide children with the creative tools stripped out by the pandemic
Interview: Richard Land
Mixing waterslides with wellbeing, the Therme Group is creating a category all of its own while taking on the world, says the group’s chief development officer
Museums: Kunsthaus Zurich completes
A David Chipperfield extension has more than doubled the museum’s exhibition space, making Zurich a major destination for the arts
Interview: Julien Kauffmann
As Farah Experiences prepares to open SeaWorld Abu Dubai, its CEO talks COVID-19, branding and branching with David Camp
Research: Making pre-booking work
Attractions are benefiting from the switch to pre-booking, but must cater for spontaneous, disorganised visitors too, says Jon Young
Research: All creatures great and small
Zoo enrichment and research can’t just be focused on the large animals most popular with visitors, argues Dr Paul Rose. All must be represented
Research: Popularity game
Research on zoo animals focuses more on ‘familiar’ species such as gorillas and chimpanzees, rather than less well known ones such as the waxy monkey frog, scientists say
Analysis: Light in the dark
A successful winter light show can see margins upwards of 30 per cent. Kathleen LaClair and
Yael Coifman look at some of the operators getting it right
Museums: Munch Museum opens in Norway
The iconic new attraction has opened on Oslo’s waterfront with the world’s largest collection of works by Edvard Munch
Mystery Shopper: Galleries & Gourds
It has transformed the sleepy town of Bruton, UK, but does Hauser & Wirth Somerset live up to the hype? Magali Robathan mystery shops to find out
Exhibits will include the Hero Arm by Open Bionics / Jamie Stoker
Exhibits will include work by London designer Bethany Williams / Ruth Ossai/Courtesy of Bethany Williams
Designs for the ‘Town Square’ at Young V&A, which is set to reopen in Bethnal Green, London in 2023 / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Plans for the Play Gallery / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The stage in the Imagine Gallery / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
COMPANY PROFILES
Taylor Made Designs
Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
Painting With Light
By combining lighting, video, scenic and architectural elements, sound and special effects we tell s [more...]
A new £13million museum in London will
serve the audience which needs it the most:
children for whom COVID-19 has stripped out
so much creative learning from critical
years, writes V&A director Tristram Hunt
a new £13m museum called Young V&A is being developed / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In the very heart of Bethnal Green, London, there sits a wonderhouse that has grown tired. The V&A Museum of Childhood, first opened in 1872, is a sumptuous, red-brick Victorian warehouse beloved of parents and grandparents, revelling in the nostalgia of Playmobil and Cabbage Patch Kids, Action Men and Pac Man consoles locked away in glass cabinets.
But it no longer serves the audience which needs it the most: the children for whom COVID-19 has stripped out so much creative learning from their critical years. That’s why we’re creating a new £13 million museum – called Young V&A – to ensure London remains the most creative city on the planet.
From the gaming industry to graphic design, from diplomacy to healthcare systems – we need creative people. Museum collections are there to be used, by all, as a sourcebook to feed the imagination. So, we must stop talking down a ‘lost’ generation and start providing the tools that young people need to shape fulfilling lives.
Our plan is to create a museum in Tower Hamlets – still the borough bearing the highest rates of child poverty – where children aged 0-14 can flex their cultural muscles. Levelling Up is not just about Mansfield and Stockton, it’s also about ensuring our capital provides decent opportunities for young people battling generational disadvantage. And building back better should not just encompass more catch-up maths and English lessons. Museums and schools need to work together to ensure that the strengths which kids need – teamwork; emotional literacy; oracy; and mental health resilience – are nurtured alongside a knowledge-rich curriculum. And the V&A, like all museums, has a role to play in this.
Our plan is to display 2,000 of the V&A’s most stunning artefacts – from objects in our collection such as the Japanese samurai suits to acquisitions, such as Team GB Olympian Sky Brown’s skateboard and a bionic 3D-printed Hero Arm, to kickstart the power of creativity. New galleries will focus on the practice of play in the early years, getting parents off their phones and on all-fours with their toddlers. Our Imagine gallery will use the legendary V&A Theatre and Performance collection – from Joey the Warhorse to original Superman costumes – to encourage aspiring actors, playwrights, poets, and dancers. It will also contain our stunning Rachel Whiteread installation of 150 dolls houses – always a highlight for role-playing youngsters. And then in our Design studio, we’ll give teenagers the skills and tools to become the next generation of makers and fashion-shapers – the Grayson Perrys, Stella McCartneys and Yinka Iloris – our country so clearly needs. Alongside it, a gaming space where digital tech will act as a convenor for creative teenagers, rather than a source of isolated, bedroom scrolling.
We’ll achieve all this in the footprint of our iconic iron-framed building (dating back to the Great Exhibition of 1851), with its beautiful mosaic floor. This has been a special place for so many east Londoners: a toddler’s first steps, a multi-generational day out, a Year-7 hang-out. When we reopen in summer 2023, we want the museum to be the public square, the shared space, for young Londoners and their creative ambitions.
The challenge is now. COVID-19 has severed too many young people from their outlets for social expression, play and connection to others. And the impact of the pandemic comes on the back of a terrible collapse in creative education, with ever fewer students taking arts subjects and a terrifying 67 per cent drop in Design and Technology GCSEs between 2010-2019. But as economist Andy Haldane has repeatedly stated, the jobs of the accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution will demand creativity as a ‘future skill,’ and yet only 34 per cent of the public feel the creative industries are for them. We need to give our communities the cultural confidence to flourish and succeed in such fast-moving times.
Great museums are as much about curating the future, as preserving the past. Pablo Picasso famously reflected that, ‘It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.’ Young V&A’s mission is to inspire the creative child of post-COVID London – which should exist in all of us.
Image Credit here if required
Tristram Hunt has been director of the V&A since 2017.
Tristram Hunt opinion published with the kind permission of the Evening Standard newspaper
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2021 issue 4
Editor's letter: Eco drivers
Therme Group and The Eden Project are going global, on an environmental mission says Magali Robathan
AM People: Julia Baird
On why her brother John Lennon would have loved the Strawberry Field attraction and the work it’s doing for the local community
AM People: Åsa Caap
The thrill of opening the Space Stockholm digital culture centre
Interview: David Harland & Sir Tim Smit
With projects underway around the world, the Eden Project is going global with its call to arms for the future of the planet
Museums: Getting creative
How the Young V&A will aim to provide children with the creative tools stripped out by the pandemic
Interview: Richard Land
Mixing waterslides with wellbeing, the Therme Group is creating a category all of its own while taking on the world, says the group’s chief development officer
Museums: Kunsthaus Zurich completes
A David Chipperfield extension has more than doubled the museum’s exhibition space, making Zurich a major destination for the arts
Interview: Julien Kauffmann
As Farah Experiences prepares to open SeaWorld Abu Dubai, its CEO talks COVID-19, branding and branching with David Camp
Research: Making pre-booking work
Attractions are benefiting from the switch to pre-booking, but must cater for spontaneous, disorganised visitors too, says Jon Young
Research: All creatures great and small
Zoo enrichment and research can’t just be focused on the large animals most popular with visitors, argues Dr Paul Rose. All must be represented
Research: Popularity game
Research on zoo animals focuses more on ‘familiar’ species such as gorillas and chimpanzees, rather than less well known ones such as the waxy monkey frog, scientists say
Analysis: Light in the dark
A successful winter light show can see margins upwards of 30 per cent. Kathleen LaClair and
Yael Coifman look at some of the operators getting it right
Museums: Munch Museum opens in Norway
The iconic new attraction has opened on Oslo’s waterfront with the world’s largest collection of works by Edvard Munch
Mystery Shopper: Galleries & Gourds
It has transformed the sleepy town of Bruton, UK, but does Hauser & Wirth Somerset live up to the hype? Magali Robathan mystery shops to find out
Exhibits will include the Hero Arm by Open Bionics / Jamie Stoker
Exhibits will include work by London designer Bethany Williams / Ruth Ossai/Courtesy of Bethany Williams
Designs for the ‘Town Square’ at Young V&A, which is set to reopen in Bethnal Green, London in 2023 / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Plans for the Play Gallery / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The stage in the Imagine Gallery / Picture Plane / Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
is preparing to open near the world-famous archaeological site in southern Italy.
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
+ More news
COMPANY PROFILES
Taylor Made Designs Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
Painting With Light By combining lighting, video, scenic and architectural elements, sound and special effects we tell s [more...]
