V&A in Europe

The V&A has deep and long standing relationships with museums and audiences across Europe, facilitating research, loans and exhibitions.

International exhibitions

The V&A has a busy programme of exhibitions and loans to Europe. In 2011/12, V&A exhibitions Constable Oil Sketches, Cult of Beauty, Postmodernism, Owen Jones, Diaghilev and Decode will all display at venues across Europe.

There are a number of recent highlights of the touring programme in Europe. The V&A has been engaged in a programme of exhibition exchanges with the Kremlin State Museum, Moscow, since 2008. At this time, the V&A's Two Centuries of British Fashion exhibited at the Moscow Kremlin State Museum and Magnificence of the Tsars was displayed at the V&A. The next jointly curated shows will be The Golden Age of the English Court, from Henry VIII to Charles I on display at the Kremlin State Museum from October 2012 to January 2013, followed by Tudors, Stuarts and Early Romanovs: Life at Court 1509-1698 at the V&A from March to July 2013.

Cold War Modern was the first V&A exhibition to travel to Lithuania, and was displayed at the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, in 2009. The V&A was also a major participant in the Swedish National Museum's exhibition, The Pre-Raphaelites, from Feb to May 2009, lending objects and contributing pioneering research and writing for the exhibition catalogue.

Art and Design for All: The Victoria and Albert Museum
Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH
18 November 2011–15 April 2012

An exhibition of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in co-operation with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The exhibition Art and Design for All reconstructs the focus of the original core collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and sheds light on its innovative approach and its function as a role model for other institutions. The exhibition also presents the results of recent research into the continental roots of the V&A, which can be traced back to the ideas of Queen Victoria's German husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a graduate of the University of Bonn, and the museum landscape of 19th-century Germany.

Art and Design for All showcases some 400 spectacular items from the rich holdings of the V&A, which is lending on this scale for the first time in its history. The exhibits are complemented by exquisite pieces from the Science Museum; the Museum of London; the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851; the Royal Collection; the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum and the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest.

For further information visit:
http://www.kah-bonn.de/ausstellungen/index_e.htm

The exhibition is held under the patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

International relationships

The V&A has strong links with a number of academic institutions and enjoys collaborative and cooperative international relationships.

The V&A has embarked on a collaborative partnership with the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife and the Musee du Louvre, supported by the EU Cultural Program. This project is the ‘European Network of Museums of Islamic Art' (REMAI: Red Europea de Museos de Arte Islámico) and is focusing on ceramics, stucco work and photography.

V&A curators are also working with on a collaborative project with European curators to catalogue the V&A’s collection of pro-democracy posters from Central and Eastern Europe. Projects such as these encourage the sharing of skills and expertise, and increase understand of the V&A collections.

The V&A has also been playing an advisory role to museums in Europe, assisting with displays, branding, trade and education.