Museums Sheffield

A partnership between the V&A and Museums Sheffield was formed in1999 to develop the new Millennium Galleries, enable the V&A to open its collections to new audiences and establish Sheffield as a flagship exhibition venue in Yorkshire. In January 2010 the partnership was renewed for a further five years under a memorandum of understanding.

Working together:

• has provided a UK venue for major V&A exhibitions. The Millennium Galleries was the only UK venue on the international tours of the exhibitions Palace and Mosque, Vivienne Westwood and Medieval Treasures from the V&A.
• is bringing a series of small displays and V&A talks to Sheffield. Christopher Marsden, V&A Archivist, spoke about the designer Godfrey Sykes on 27 October 2011 to accompany a display of his work at Weston Park Museum;  Eric Turner, Curator of Metalwork,  was in conversation with silversmith Chris Knight on 10 November 2011 about chalices, church plate and the role of designers in creating metal objects; and Rowan Watson, Senior Curator, Word and Image, will discuss aspects of John Ruskin in February 2012.
• allowed curators to explore the respective collections in planning the Metalware gallery which celebrates Sheffield's international reputation for metalwork and silverware.
• has facilitated exchange of information and expertise in areas as wide as management and marketing to technical operations.
• develops staff through collaboration and secondments to and from the V&A.
• benefited Sheffield school pupils and young people  through the partnership project Design for Life (link to design for life page), one of the Strategic Commissioning Projects funded by the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
• brings Sheffield exhibitions to the V&A:  Museums Sheffield’s current exhibition, Sports Lab  (renamed Beautiful Games) will come to the V&A Museum of Childhood in 2012.  In turn, Museums Sheffield is to show the Museum of Childhood exhibition Magic Worlds in April 2012.