V&A Network
V&A Network
Take a look at what goes on behind-the-scenes in the world’s greatest museum of art and design. From bestselling exhibitions to hidden gems in the collections, learn about our latest projects, ideas and discoveries.
Friday, May 17, 2013 - 11:21
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This weekend, just down the road from the Museum at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show will getting ready to celebrate its 100th anniversary. To commemorate this centenary, we have been down to the potting shed and dug up some objects from the V&A collections that might be of interest to anyone with green fingers. Botanical IllustrationDid you know that the V&A has a...
Friday, May 17, 2013 - 10:18
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By Sally Dormer, tutor for the Medieval component on the Late Medieval and Renaissance Year Course. The V&A’s spectacular collection of late medieval ivories is displayed in our award winning Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. This diminutive (15.5 cm high), late 13th-century, Italian, statuette of Christ, or corpus, lives in its own case, in Gallery 9. The Museum acquired it, together...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 14:30
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Did you know that the V&A holds in its collections over 2000 British and European oil paintings? They include works by several influential artists, including the renowned 18th century painter Thomas Gainsborough, who was born on this day in 1727.The Painter’s Two Daughters, oil painting, by Thomas Gainsborough, about 1758. Museum no. F.9. © Victoria and Albert Museum,...
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 00:00
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By Nicholas Smith, Archivist.Photograph of the Bayeux Tapestry by Cundall & Co., 1873. Museum no. E.573:25-2005It seems extraordinary but the V&A once owned a piece of the Bayeux tapestry!Measuring 3¼ in x 2½ in, it was one of two fragments removed surreptitiously (?) by Charles Stothard (1786-1821) sometime between 1816 and 1818 when he was engaged in producing a full scale...
Friday, April 26, 2013 - 09:55
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By Paula Nuttall, Director of Late Medieval to Early Renaissance Year Course. A masterpiece of late gothic painting presides in solitary splendour over one end of the Raphael Cartoon Courts, isolated from its medieval and early renaissance counterparts on the other side of the Museum: the St George altarpiece from Valencia. It is not only one of the V&A’s most important late medieval...
Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 16:43
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The majority of our work is not as dramatically visible as the decanting and stripping out of the galleries. The main hub of activity has been happening outside the galleries - in offices, store rooms, libraries, archives and conservation studios. Here we research, develop and refine new content for the galleries.We have recently reached the significant point in the project of confirming the...
Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 14:42
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By Brodie Lyon, Annual Fund and Appeals Manager.The V&A is working with the National Funding scheme to help launch DONATE, a digital platform that aims to increase giving to the arts. At the moment we’re one of just 11 organisations involved, and they span a number of different types; from huge, national galleries to small, touring theatre companies, it’s about supporting the arts...
Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 11:52
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By William Newton, Assistant Curator, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion.For anyone who saw the Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones exhibition at the V&A a few years back, you will already have been invested with the ill-kept secret that the Museum has one of the finest collections of millinery in the world.As discussed in my previous post (since when I have been promoted to Assistant Curator...
Saturday, April 20, 2013 - 14:06
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By Paula Nuttall, Director of Late Medieval to Early Renaissance Year Course. The V&A has the greatest collection of Italian renaissance maiolica in the world – over a thousand pieces in all. This dish from the Renaissance Galleries, displayed in a case devoted to objects connected with marriage and childbirth, is one of my favourites. Measuring almost 47 cm in diameter, it depicts a...
Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 12:36
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‘David Bowie is one in a million. He is a huge inspiration to me and a vast majority of the world. He has opened my mind to many new ideas and has shown us that anything is possible.’Dom Grimshaw © Victoria and Albert Museum, London I ended my last post by looking forward to the visit by the students of Ravens Wood School to the Museum. Since then, the exhibition ‘David...