STUDENTS & LECTURERS

A Guide to the V&A Website For Students

The V&A collections

You can find out more about the V&A exhibition programme by clicking on the 'Exhibitions' button at the top of the page. As well as hosting exciting exhibitions the V&A has extensive permanent collections of art and design. To find out more about the objects you can see at the V&A, go to the 'Collections' button and choose the area you are interested in. There are resources such as essays, videos, reading lists, podcasts, photographs of the galleries, and much more. You can use the 'search the collections' facility to find out about individual objects.

The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green is also a V&A Museum. You can find out more about it by following the link to its own website from the V&A's homepage, where you can also access the Theatre & Performance Collections and the Archives.

Resources for research

As well as the parts of the collections that you can see in the Museum's galleries, there are other ways of accessing research material at the V&A. Some of these areas of the Museum have restricted opening hours or are by appointment only, so use the 'Resources' link from the V&A homepage for more information on the following: The National Art Library (NAL), The V&A Prints and Drawing Study Room, The RIBA Architecture Study Rooms, The Indian and South-East Asian Study Room, The Textiles Study Rooms, The Learning and Interpretation Resource Centre and Blythe House Archive & Library Reading Room. It is also possible to view items that are in the Museum's stores. Go to the webpages for each individual collection to find out how to arrange a visit.

Images

You can search the website for images of objects from the V&A's collections to use in your projects. You are welcome to download and use any image on the website where the copyright belongs to the V&A. In addition, images are available through 'Search the Collections' on the Collections page for download in hi-resolution format, and may be used free of charge, at up to A5 size. You are welcome to draw in the Museum using dry art materials and can take photographs, but before you visit please read our photography policy.

Courses and events

The V&A runs a diverse programme of courses and events. There are regular free gallery talks and tours of the Museum, demonstrations, festivals and special events linked with cultural celebrations and exhibitions. The V&A also organises lectures, critical debates, symposia, courses and conferences that explore aspects of the history of art and design and contemporary culture. Click on 'Activities and Events' on the V&A homepage to find out more. Get up-to-date information about these events by signing up to receive our e-newsletter. Enter your email address in the box on the V&A homepage, and check the 'What's On' calendar for more news about courses and talks.

Postgraduate courses in Conservation and History of Design are provided jointly by the V&A and the Royal College of Art. There is more information about these courses on the 'Students and Lecturers' pages of the website. 

Tips for searching the V&A website

If you are looking for information about objects and images of them, there are two places to search on the V&A website.

Firstly, 'Search the Collections', which can be found in the collections section of the site, gives you access to the database of our digitised objects that we are adding to all the time. You will find that the entries have a standard format and a variable number of images. You need to remember that not all objects in this database are currently on display and that not all objects owned by the museum have been digitised. This database is completely separate from the rest of the website and items in here will not appear in the second kind of search.

The second search can be found at the top of the right-hand corner of the page on most pages of the site. It covers everythings on the site, except Search the Collections, and works like Google. You will have to skim the results that it returns to find the one most appropriate for you. It will find objects but it will also find concepts such as 'Modernism' or Art Deco'.

It is important to remember the differences in the results you will get and it is worth trying both search facilities to see for yourself. For example, if you type 'sportswear' into the search box in the top-right of the site you will find information about sportswear-related subjects at the V&A, including exhibitions about sportswear, resource boxes in the V&A Prints and Drawings Study Room, sportswear-themed events at the V&A, and V&A publications. If you type 'sportswear' into 'Search the Collections' you will find images of relevant objects from the V&A collections, including vintage and contemporary sports clothing, fashions inspired by sport, sports footwear and advertising posters for sports goods manufacturers.

There are other ways to find things on the V&A website. The links along the top of the homepage link to sections of content that cover everything on the site while the left-hand links show what is available within each section. The boxes on the lower half of the homepage highlight key content within these sections. We also have a sitemap that shows every single page and its title but as we have over 100,000 pages on the site, you may find that it is too large for your purposes. Also, don't forget to check the National Art Library catalogue for books about the subject you are researching. Ultimately, familiarity with the website will be very important in helping you to find your way around.

CETLD Audio Downloads

Click here for audio downloads for students

How well do you know the V&A's permanent galleries?  On these podcasts you can hear curators, design tutors, students and others talking about the Jewellery Gallery, the British Galleries, the Silver Galleries and the Cast Courts. 

You can download them on to an mp3 player and use them before, during or after a visit.  For example, you could try one on the way to the V&A to prepare for visiting.

Your visit

There is also practical information in the 'Your Visit'  section of the website, where you can find out more about shopping, eating, access and organising your trip. The V&A is free to visit but some exhibitions have an entrance fee. Ticketed exhibitions have student discounts so remember to bring your student I.D. or NUS card when you visit us. Pre-booked organised group visits by UK and European universities and colleges to ticketed exhibitions are free, so tell your tutor if there are specific exhibitions that will help you with your projects and they can arrange a group visit.