The redesigned museum, which is set to reopen in Bethnal Green in its original Grade II* listed building in 2023, will be ‘a place to play, create, debate and design for tomorrow’ for children from birth to 14, the V&A said.
The museum's new mission is to inspire young people with the creative ingenuity of design, to empower educators and to act as a leader in child-centred museum practice.
Director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, said, ‘Young people’s lives have been dramatically altered by the pandemic, yet they have adapted and enriched the soul of the nation in extraordinary ways – from a rainbow campaign honouring the NHS to Sky Brown’s skateboarding achievements for Team GB.
‘A world-class museum that nurtures curiosity, experimentation and celebrates play, Young V&A will be a global champion for children’s creativity in all its forms. This vital investment – working to counter the ongoing effects of Covid-19 on young people’s access to creative education, collaborative play, and artistic inspiration – is more urgent than ever.
'I am delighted we are one step closer to reopening the museum’s doors in 2023.’
New renders illustrate the latest designs by AOC Architecture for an entirely new visitor experience.
The plans include three new galleries Play, Imagine and Design, interactive collection displays drawing on the full scope of the V&A collections, a suite of dedicated workshops for learning, an in-gallery design studio for visitors, and a redesigned visitor experience including a new café and shop.
A render of the Adventure Gallery
Creative education spaces for hands-on making and performance will play a key role in Young V&A’s new galleries, from an amphitheatre-style stage in Imagine, to a free-play construction area within Play, and a working Open Studio in Design, inviting young visitors to develop their creative skills through performance, play and design.
Alongside this, three workshop spaces dedicated to learning, and a reading room in the lower ground floor, will support a year-round programme from parenting courses and sessions for early years, curriculum-based provision for pupils in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 and after-school and holiday activity for families and young people.
Objects from the National Childhood Collection, previously stored below ground at the museum will now move to V&A East Storehouse, which is set to open in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2024. The collection comprises over 33,000 objects from miniature dolls house furniture to a four-metre- high sixteenth century Italian Marionette theatre.
Dr Helen Charman, V&A director of learning, national programmes and Young V&A, said, ‘Reinvention is woven into the fabric of this incredible building, from the iconic ironwork structure, part of the original Great Exhibition in 1851 to its rebranding in 1974, in recognition of the museum’s popularity with local schools and families – and it has rightly won over a special place in the hearts of many east Londoners, many of whom have visited as children, then as parents and grandchildren.
‘Today, we mark a momentous milestone in the evolution of its identity and underscore its core purpose – to champion, nurture, and inspire the innovators of tomorrow and build creative confidence in the young. We can’t wait to reopen the doors.’
In the lead-up to reopening, and to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the V&A in Bethnal Green in 2022, the Young V&A team will be working with every school in Tower Hamlets – offering creative assemblies, running workshops, and developing new activities for families with grassroots local organisations.
New acquisitions
The museum has also announced a series of new acquisitions including:
- A skateboard owned by Tokyo 2020 medallist 13-year-old Sky Brown, the youngest professional skateboarder in the world and Britain’s youngest-ever Olympic athlete.
- The world’s most affordable multi-grip prosthetic arm – The Hero Arm, designed for children and adults, which challenges traditional notions of prosthetics, presenting disabilities as superpowers with an empowering, multi-functional and affordable design.
A selection of linocut ‘Woodism’ prints, a moving project between Sonny Adorjan and his eight-year-old son Woody, who is autistic (below). Sonny turns Woody’s unique phrases and way of viewing the world into linocut prints, which enables them to connect while working together on the designs, and has given Woody a newfound confidence.
- A selection of garments by sustainable fashion designer, humanitarian and artist, Bethany Williams from her Spring / Summer 2021 ‘All Our Children’ collection (2020), featuring illustrations that shine a light on families from the Magpie Project – an east London-based grassroots organisation that supports women and children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness – and silhouettes inspired by the V&A’s National Childhood Collections.
The museum said it will also establish a Young V&A Designer in Residence in 2022, who will use the Young V&A collections and gallery themes to inspire their practice and to undertake research into child-centred, inclusive design processes, informing the museum’s thinking and future programmes.
Images by Picture Plane © Victoria and Albert Museum, London