FuturePlan updates

News and updates from FuturePlan projects. 

Decanting the Galleries

Friday, February 22, 2013 - 11:34
Posted in:
Creating the new Europe 1600–1800 Galleries
This second blog entry follows the exciting (and relieving!) recent news that our project has been successful in our bid to the HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) for funding to support the completion of the galleries. As well as a reason for celebration, this achievement provides a good moment to briefly reflect on how far the project has already come since its initial inception back in November 2009....
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Bed ('Lit à la polonaise'), Stamped 'G. JACOB', French (Paris), about 1780 [8459

Welcome to the Project!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - 13:48
Posted in:
Creating the new Europe 1600–1800 Galleries
The Europe 1600-1800 Galleries are a series of seven galleries running between the Museum’s two main entrances in Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road. Their renovation is a part of FuturePlan, a Museum-wide project to create beautiful and contemporary new settings for the V&A’s outstanding collections, while restoring much of the building’s original architecture and improving...
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Portrait of Madame de Pompadour

A plaster cast from Cairo

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - 09:50
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Mariam Rosser-Owen, Curator Middle East Among the two-dimensional casts that will eventually be displayed in Gallery 46 – the corridor that runs between the two Cast Courts – is an interesting selection of architectural decoration from two major Islamic centres: the Alhambra in Granada, the palace built by the Nasrid rulers of Islamic Spain in the 14th century; and Cairo in...
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Cleaning in progress - detail

Update - defining the decorative scheme

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 13:34
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Reena Suleman, Project Coordinator at the V&A Continuing the process of revealing the ‘hidden gems’ of the Cast Courts, attention has recently turned towards understanding the original decorative scheme(s).  Tried and tested methods of paint sampling and analysis have been the principal tools for this work although it has also been possible to incorporate knowledge...
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Paintings Conservation – the treatment of Anton Raphael Mengs, Copy of Raphael’s School of Athens

Friday, December 23, 2011 - 13:32
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Nicola Costaras, Head Paintings Conservator Mengs’ copy of Raphael’s School of Athens was painted in 1755 as one of a series of exemplary works for the gallery at Northumberland House. It was damaged both by a fire there in 1868 and in the subsequent salvage operation. There is minute blistering of the paint surface in places particularly the upper right area of the painting...
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Mengs Copy of the School of Athens, detail of the head of Michelangelo.

Contextualising the Casts

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 22:10
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Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Beatrice McDermott, Intern in the Sculpture section. As an intern at the V&A my main task has been locating photographs of the original sculpture that has been cast and displayed in our magnificent Cast Courts. I have scoured the V&A, starting in the Sculpture section’s image bank and then moving on to the seemingly bottomless pit of the Prints and Drawing Study Room’s...
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Plaster cast of a sandstone cross, Museum no. REPRO.1903-25

Tender Loving Care for a ‘well-behaved painting’

Friday, November 11, 2011 - 21:38
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Melanie Vandenbrouck-Przybylski This week, I am introducing you to Martin Welsh, one of the technicians working on the Cast Court project and whose ‘magic’ operates in the beautiful frame-supports he builds to facilitate object moves and safe storage. Martin joined the V&A in November 2010, after spending three and a half years building exhibitions at the Imperial War...
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Jesus on the Cross

Conservation in progress

Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - 12:22
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Sofia Marques, Sculpture Conservator at the V&A The practical work on this collection of objects is now progressing. This follows the initial assessments of the condition of each object. The conservation is split between: - a metal conservator, who looks at the electrotypes - an example is the great Baptistery doors known as the Gates of Paradise in gall. 46B, made of gilded...
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The School of Athens

Storage Conversations

Friday, October 21, 2011 - 13:08
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Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Melanie Vandenbrouck-Przybylski If you’ve recently been to the V&A and walked over the Gilbert Bayes Gallery of Sculpture which runs mid-height between the two Cast Courts, you will have seen that the Italian side has been cleared of the majority of its casts. This was done to both protect the objects from the renovation works and to make space for these works to happen...
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46B after

Revealing Some Hidden Gems

Monday, October 10, 2011 - 14:28
Posted in:
Reviving the V&A’s Cast Courts
By Reena Suleman, Project Coordinator at the V&A   I joined the V&A just over a year ago and was thrilled to learn that I was going to be working on the Cast Courts project.  Their vast spaces and monumental reproductions of some of the worlds most well known pieces of sculpture and architecture have long been a source of fascination over the years on my many visits to the...
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East View, showing trench heating. c.1870
View of design for the new V&A courtyard, café and entrance from Exhibition

News from staff working on the V&A's FuturePlan projects .

FuturePlan is transforming the V&A by revitalising visitor facilities and redisplaying the collections. Using the best architects and designers, we are bringing the V&A into the 21st century and restoring modern design and innovation to the heart of the museum.

Find out about the wide range of innovative work of leading Museum experts, that goes into transforming the V&A, as they work with the best architects and designers to revitalise visitor facilities and redisplaying the collections.