This has been an exciting week for ‘Project Team Quilts’! We have our 3D, 2D and lighting designers on board and are working closely with everyone to finalise the design concept. The creative aspect of mounting an exhibition is in many ways one of the most challenging but also immensely satisfying aspects of the project – particularly when faced with the inevitable budget cuts. Lively round table discussions focusing on the cost benefits of replacing plywood false walls with mdf, the possibility of incorporating fabric as opposed to solid panels and new and fresh ways of prsenting the text labels take place on a weekly basis but we feel we are making progress. One of the key aims of the exhibition is to showcase as many quilts as possible within the context of the domestic interior – which means exploring alternative ways of mounting the objects three dimensionally. Our design team have embraced this concept and presented us with exciting and innovative designs which reflect the five key themes of the exhibition. We suddenly realised as we sat around the table that our design team is all female – and this made me wonder whether the success of the exhibition design process is, in part, attributable to a female sensibility?
We have also just received our first design layout for the exhibition publication – which was a truly emotional moment. All our contributors have worked so hard to meet our copy deadline, producing a combination of new research and engaging object studies which reflect both the rich diversity of objects in the collection but also their own area of expertise. For the first time, the V&A’s quilt collection will be fully photographed and catalogued and it is our hope that this book will become a milestone in quilt publications.
