An explosion of creative force in the East End of London is giving the lie to the horrors abroad and stirring the heart with hope! As if V&A East Storehouse, to which we have recently run two highly successful study mornings, weren’t enough, the new V&A East Museum, just nearby, opened just a week ago. Its beneficent influences add to the strong cultural foundations of Sadlers Wells, BBC Music Studios, the London College of Fashion, and University College London already established here on the 2012 Olympic Park.
Like an origami animal O’Donnell and Tuomey’s newest addition perches, almost weightless, on legs whose V and A shapes echo the logo of the Museum itself, while its soft sandy cladding denies the harshness of some of the surrounding steel and glass.
I have just come from my first visit there on fire with excitement at the way this Museum is crossing the bridge from old-style museum stuffiness to spirited youthful energy. Not just by showing the work of current designers from multiple different cultures in the East End – from Cockney to Caribbean – but by inviting us all to look in detail at works from the V&A’s permanent collection and see how in this fresh context they may continue to inspire today’s designers young and old. It’s a museum world not of chronology, but of connectivity and creativity, the kind of world in which leaps of creative action take place across centuries of time, across materials – from textile to tile from fabrics to photography, and from the far distant past to imagined futures. Altogether it delivers that quivering sensation that makes you feel as if you could do anything, break boundaries, produce something no one else has before, and find a mode of expression that is yours and yours alone, not by rejecting the past, but by discovering your own unique voice in the context of innovation.
When the V&A first opened in 1857 as the South Kensington Museum, its aim was to improve British design in the wake of what was, for Britain, the aesthetic disaster of the Great Exhibition of 1851. It achieved this by gathering the best of design from East and West, and it has had massively beneficial influence since, but it has not always reached the full diversity of British students. That is the aim of this museum, placed in an area traditionally associated with waves of immigrants who have enriched British society and culture.
The new V&A East devotes itself over its three floors to art, design and performance. Here is the most extraordinary inlaid cabinet from the 17c:
a pilgrimage painting inviting a journey through the imagination:
an Indian cotton shirt minutely inscribed with verses from the Koran:
and tiles that seem to be 15c Spanish, until you look closer:
There’s a dramatic quilt by a prisoner in Wandsworth, an exquisite robe worn by a Daoist priest, Derek Jarman’s thrilling set design for Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’, and the now-famous Kehinde Wiley’s meticulous painting of a William Morris design (alongside actual Morris textiles) entwining itself around the portrait of a young woman the artist met in Hackney:
In a morning of close examination we will be focussing intently on a selection of the 500 objects that are on display here, and while discussing their significance for the culture in which they were made, also looking at the multiple ways in which they may inspire young students in their creative lives.
The UK’s creative industries contribute a massive £124 billion to the UK annually growing at twice the rate of the overall British economy. Arguably, our hope for the future lies in these industries. The V&A is certainly playing a vital part in their stimulation. Come and see that stimulus in action!
SCHEDULE:
11.00 for 11.15am Please meet Nicholas either outside Stratford Station, Montfichet Road entrance, or
11.30 am at the Waterfront Entrance of the Museum outside the café. Optional lunch in the Italian restaurant Lanterna. Taxis happily provided or take a ten-minute canal walk there.
Cost: £80 members, £90 non-members.
We regret numbers are limited to 12.
Booking Information
This study day ‘The V&A East Museum’, has been developed by Louise Friend and will be presented by Nicholas Friend. Cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719 397. She is available by phone Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-5 pm.
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