Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London
Greater London
SW7 2RL
England
Website
Telephone
Events Bookings
020 7942 2211
Exhibitions Bookings
020 7907 7073
Fax
020 7942 2266
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is the world’s greatest museum of art and design.
Venue Type:
Museum
Additional info
See website for details
The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.
The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day.
Although the V&A's collections are international in their scope, they contain many particularly important British works - especially British silver, ceramics, textiles and furniture.
Part of the RIBA Trust's British Architecture Library, a Designated Collection of national importance, is on display at this museum.
The collection provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of architecture. It is fundamental to the study of architecture in Britain and is nationally and internationally significant.
Collection details
World Cultures, Weapons and War, Toys and Hobbies, Social History, Photography, Personalities, Performing Arts, Music, Fine Art, Design, Decorative and Applied Art, Costume and Textiles, Archives, Architecture, Archaeology
Key artists and exhibits
- The British Galleries 1500-1900 tell the story of British design from the Tudor age to the Victorian era. Fifteen completely refurbished galleries are filled with exhibits reflecting all of the top British designers of the times. The galleries are enhanced by computer interactives, objects to handle, video screens and audio programmes. Highlights include the gigantic Great Bed of Ware (mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and the wedding suit worn by James II. Inspirational, beautiful and unmatched in scope, the British Galleries offer an entirely new visitor experience in a stunning and innovative setting.
- Designated Collection
Deception: Ceramics and Imitation
From functional tableware masquerading as fruit or vegetables to imitations of prized materials, potters have always created objects intended to delight and surprise by deceiving the eye.
With virtuoso display pieces startling in their verisimilitude and luxurious imitations of silver, marble or gemstones, this display will draw on the V&A’s extensive ceramic collections to show some remarkable transformations achieved in ceramics.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Building Memories: The Art of Remembering
This display offers alternative ways of understanding the “art of remembering”, explored by Hari Kunzru in his narrative for Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace. It features historical mnemonic approaches to developing memory skills: from classical texts (printed in the European Renaissance) to Victorian manuals and card games, and also presents contemporary visual interpretations of home – an emotionally resonant space where you may mentally store what you want to recall.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Treasures of the Royal Courts
Comprising more than 150 objects, from royal portraits, jewellery and luxury goods to processional armour and heraldry, Treasures of the Royal Courts chronicles the close relationship between the English monarchy and the Russian Tsars.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
Free.
Website
Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace
Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace brings together a new work of fiction by the author Hari Kunzru with 20 original commissions from leading graphic designers, illustrators and typographers to create a multidimensional story. The way we read books is changing. Memory Palace explores how a story might be imagined in a different format – as a walk-in book.
The story is set in a future London, hundreds of years after the world’s information infrastructure was wiped out by an immense magnetic storm. Technology and knowledge have been lost, and a dark age prevails. Nature has taken over the ruins of the old city and power has been seized by a group who enforce a life of extreme simplicity on all citizens. Recording, writing, collecting and art are outlawed.
The narrator of the story is in prison. He is accused of being a member of a banned sect, who has revived the ancient ‘art of memory’. They try to remember as much of the past as they can in a future where forgetting has been official policy for generations. The narrator uses his prison cell as his ‘memory palace’, the location for the things he has remembered: corrupted fragments and misunderstood details of things we may recognise from our time. He clings to his belief that without memory, civilisation is doomed.
Suitable for
Admission
Members Free
Book online
Prices
£7.00 Full, including donation* (+£1 booking fee per ticket)
£6.00 Senior citizens, including donation* (+£1 booking fee per ticket)
£6.00 Full (+£1 booking fee per ticket)
£5.00 Senior citizens (+70p booking fee per ticket)
£4.00 Full-time students, 12-17 year olds, ES40 holders, disabled people (+70p booking fee per ticket)
£10.00 Family of one adult & two 12-17 year olds (+£2.05 booking fee per family ticket)
£16.00 Famiy of two adults & two 12-17 year olds (+£2.30 booking fee per family ticket)
David Bowie Is
David Bowie is will feature more than 300 objects that include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and Bowie's own instruments.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
Prices to be announced.
Website
Beatrix Potter and the Beautiful Satin Waistcoat
Her sketches of the costumes are so accurate that it is possible to identify the original garments that inspired her, including a beautiful satin waistcoat, 'worked with poppies and corn-flowers'.
Suitable for
- Any age
Where
Room 102
Admission
Free.
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/beatrix-potter-and-the-beautiful-satin-waistcoat/
Pearls
This exhibition will explore the history of natural pearls from the early Roman Empire to the present. On display will be spectacular jewellery showcasing the many different shapes and colours of pearls.
Highlights include a 16th-century salamander pendant, delicate art nouveau pieces, a group of magnificent tiaras worn by European royalty and a pair of drop pearl earrings owned by Elizabeth Taylor.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
Free.
Website
Elmgreen & Dragset at the V&A
The V&A has commissioned leading contemporary artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset to create a major site-specific installation in the former Textile Galleries. Throughout their career the artists have redefined the way in which art is presented and experienced, raising issues around social models and spaces, and prompting a re-thinking of the status quo.
This ambitious exhibition will comprise a stage set for an unrealised drama, presenting objects from the V&A's collection alongside artworks, furniture and every day items to create an unexpected encounter for the museum visitor.
Suitable for
Admission
Please check website
British Drawings: 1600 to the Present Day
Covering 400 years of drawing practice and including works by Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Constable, Blake, Rossetti, Spencer, Freud and Hockney, this display traces the central role played by drawing in portraiture and ‘landskip’, and in movements from Romanticism to Minimalism.
Innovative contemporary works demonstrate drawing’s continuing importance for artists.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
Admission
Free.
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/british-drawings-1600-to-the-present-day/
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900
Over 100 works, including some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings as well as other extremely rare pieces, will be loaned from the greatest international collections.
The exhibition will examine the recurrent interplay between tradition and innovation which is characteristic of Chinese painting. It will chart the evolving themes and aesthetic preferences over the centuries from figure paintings on silk for tombs and temples, to the rise of landscape painting, and to the introduction of Western influences.
The paintings will range from small-scale intimate works by monks and literati to scroll paintings over 12 metres long to present a complete overview of one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
Free.
Website
Alec Cobbe: Designer, Collector, Connoisseur
For over 40 years Alec Cobbe has been a key figure in the understanding and presentation of historic painting collections and interiors. He has also pursued a multi-faceted career as a designer, painter, picture restorer, collector and connoisseur. This display is drawn from the drawings, photographs and other archives which Alec Cobbe has generously donated to the V&A.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Making It Up: Photographic Fictions
Photography is widely associated with truthfulness yet it has also been employed throughout its history as a means of telling stories and evoking the imaginary. This display includes photographs by some of the most influential contemporary artists working in this vein, such as Gregory Crewdson, Duane Michals and Cindy Sherman, alongside examples by 19th-century practitioners including Julia Margaret Cameron, Clementina Lady Hawarden and Oscar Gustav Rejlander.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
A World to Win: Posters of Protest and Revolution
From the ‘Votes for Women’ campaigns of the early 20th century to the recent Occupy movements, political activists around the world have used posters to mobilise, educate and organise. Making or displaying a poster is in itself a means of taking political action, while for many social and political movements posters have represented an important form of cultural output. Themes of protest and political participation have gained a powerful contemporary resonance in the wake of the Arab Spring and the global financial crisis. This display looks at a century of posters agitating for political change drawn from the V&A collection, including new acquisitions gathered from recent outbursts of protest.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
In Black and White: Prints and Posters from Africa and the Diaspora
This display features a variety of powerful graphic images from the 1960s to the present – prints, posters, books and ephemera – by notable artists as well as anonymous activists. Some works address social and political issues head on, others reflect their time and place more subtly, but they all confirm print as a vital medium for personal expression, protest, and cultural exchange.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Indian Arrival Day
Discover the growth of material prosperity as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and mass migration of an indentured labour force from the Indian subcontinent to east and south Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Immerse yourself in stories of Diaspora, dance, spoken word, a gallery tour of Asia and Africa and a tent style shebeen featuring soca, chutney and perang.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
6:30-9:30pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
Free, drop in
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2469/indian-arrival-day-3760/
Digital Kids
Limited spaces available daily
Suitable for
- 5-6
- 7-10
- 11-13
Admission
Free, drop in
Website
Pop-up Performances
Limited places available daily
Suitable for all the family especially for early years
Early years performances supported by Outset Family
Saturday 25 May – 2 June
11.00, 13.00 & 15.00
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
Free, drop-in
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2313/mini-musicians-3595/
The Imagination Station
Pick up materials to create your design.
Suitable for
- 5-6
- 7-10
- 11-13
Admission
free, drop-in
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2305/the-imagination-station-may-half-term-3587/
Make-it Music Icon (5 - 12 year olds)
Get the pop star look with costume, make up and photography, with professional photographer, producer and DJ Edward Otchere.
10.30 - 12.30 & 14.30 - 16.30
Suitable for
- 11-13
- 5-6
- 7-10
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£7.50 per child, children must be accompanied by an adult.
Advance booking essential. Maximum 1 adult per child.
Architecture&: Ole Scheeran
Internationally acclaimed architect Ole Scheeran discusses some of his major projects, including towers in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and ideas for a new kind of kinetic performing art space/arena.
In collaboration with the Royal College of Art and The Architecture Review
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
6:30-7:30pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£9, £6 concessions
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2439/architecture-ole-scheeran-3727/
V&A Book Group
£7 (includes refreshments)
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
6:30-8pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£7 (includes refreshments)
Website
Courtly Style: Tudor and Stuart Dress
Explore the many exquisite materials, styles and accessories associated with Tudor and Stuart dress in a day organised to coincide with the V&A's Royal Treasures: Tudors, Stuarts and the Tsars and the Royal Collection's In Fine Style: Tudor and Stuart Dress.
Topics include the use of embroidery, lace, jewellery, and armour, and the representation of costume in portraiture, as well as Tudor and Stuart fashions. Speakers are drawn from the V&A, Royal Collection and elsewhere, and the day also includes a ticket to the Royal Collection exhibition.
In collaboration with the Royal Collection.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
From 10am
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£40, £30, concessions £15 students
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2444/courtly-style-tudor-and-stuart-dress-3732/
Lunchtime Lecture: War Games
Curators Sarah Wood and Ieuan Hopkins talk about War Games, a dynamic and provocative exhibition that illustrates the diverse ways that play and toys recreate and represent warfare.
The lecture will explore the secret history of toys used as tools of war and espionage, and looks at the impact conflict has had on children’s play and toy manufacturing. Please note this event takes place at V&A South Kensington, Sackler Centre.
Suitable for
- 18+
- Not suitable for children
When
1-2:30pm
Website
http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/whats-on/events-and-activities/v-and-a-lunchtime-lecture
Art and Design at the Stuart Court
From Van Dyck’s dazzling portraits, Inigo Jones’s revolutionary new architecture and interiors, to new approaches in tapestry, goldsmiths’ work and other art forms, explore how England jumped to the cutting edge of European fashion. Led by Dr Richard Williams, V&A Year Course Director, High Renaissance to Baroque: 1500-1720.
Fridays, 7 June - 28 June, 11.00-15.00
£225, £200 concessions
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£225, £200 concessions
Booking in advance essential. Please go to www.vam.ac.uk/whatson
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2260/art-and-design-at-the-stuart-court-3539/
Jon Savage and Michael Bracewell
Writer, broadcaster and journalist, Jon Savage, has been described as the definitive historian of Punk and is a hugely influential writer on many aspects of pop and youth culture.
He talks to fellow author, Michael Bracewell about David Bowie and the music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£9, £6 concessions
Tom Dixon: Dixonary
Hear Tom Dixon, one of Britain’s best known and most innovative product designers, talk about the many and varied inspirations for his work.
Dixon’s thirty year career includes being head of Design for Habitat, Creative Director at Artek, and running his own lighting and furniture company since 2003. This event coincides with the publication of Dixionary, the first monograph on Tom Dixon.
When
6:30-7:30pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£9, £6 concessions
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2443/tom-dixon-dixonary-3731/
Style Cities: Berlin
Explore post-war Berlin,the divided city of the Cold War era, that inspired David Bowie and the thriving creative city today which continues to attract innovative practitioners from across the globe.
This event considers the rich artistic and cultural heritage of the city, its impact on Bowies music and the growing influence of Krautrock and the contemporary music scene.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
11am-4pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£25, £20 concessions, £10 students
Emerging Empires: England and Muscovy in the 16th and 17th Century
Join us for an international conference bringing together scholars, curators and Historians to debate the diplomatic and trade relations between England and Muscovy.
Discover the politics, taste and gifts exchanged between the Royal Courts and the Russian Tsars.
In collaboration with the Society for Court Studies.
With the support of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
10am-5:15pm
Where
Victoria and Albert
Admission
£25, £20 concessions, £10 students
Website
Margaret Howell: Talking Fashion
Hear the renowned British fashion designer Margaret Howell discuss her career with Penny Martin, editor of The Gentlewoman magazine.
Howell has been a vital part of the British design scene for nearly four decades, creating classic versions of androgynous items like the shirt, the trench coat and the gym slip. She has outlets all over the world including Britain, Japan and the USA.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
6:30-7:30pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£9, £6 concessions
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2441/margaret-howell-talking-fashion-3729/
William Morris Textiles and Wallpapers
Artist, writer, socialist and conservationist, William Morris is best-known today as a designer of flat patterns. He designed over twenty textiles and over forty wallpapers which together revolutionised the decoration of the interior. Coinciding with the publication of a major new V&A book on Morris textiles, this event explores the distinctive characteristics, the techniques and designs, and the ways in which Morris’s patterns were used. Speakers include Linda Parry, Jo Banham. The V&A collection includes paintings featured on the Your Paintings website.
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
- 18+
- 16-17
When
2-5pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£25.00, £20.00 concessions, £10.00 students.
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2445/william-morris-textiles-and-wallpapers-3733/
Workshops for 10-12 Year Olds
MAKE-IT: SET DESIGN - Using the Theatre and Performance collection as inspiration, create your own model for a show.
Saturday 18 May
MAKE-IT: MUSIC ICON - Using photographs you will take during the session, create your own iconic image where you are the star! With professional photographer, producer and DJ Edward Otchere.
Saturday 15 June
Suitable for
- 11-13
When
11am-1pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
Suitable for 10 - 12 year olds
£7.50 per person, children do not need to be accompanied by an adult but emergency conatct details must be provided. Advanced booking is essential.
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2448/make-it-set-design-10-12-year-olds-3736/
Workshops for 10-12 Year Olds
MAKE-IT: SET DESIGN - Using the Theatre and Performance collection as inspiration, create your own model for a show.
Saturday 18 May
MAKE-IT: MUSIC ICON - Using photographs you will take during the session, create your own iconic image where you are the star! With professional photographer, producer and DJ Edward Otchere.
Saturday 15 June
Suitable for
- 11-13
When
2-4pm
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
Suitable for 10 - 12 year olds
£7.50 per person, children do not need to be accompanied by an adult but emergency conatct details must be provided. Advanced booking is essential.
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2448/make-it-set-design-10-12-year-olds-3736/
The Age of Vermeer: The Art of Interiors
Vermeer created some of the most exquisite and enigmatic paintings in the history of Western art. Best known for meticulously constructed domestic interiors, his paintings focus on private moments in which figures are engaged in everyday activities such as playing music, reading a letter or fastening a collar.
Topics include interiors and music as depicted within the paintings of Vermeer, Jan Steen, Henrick ter Brugghen and Carel Fabritius and 17th century interiors, furniture, silver and cabinets of curiosity. Tutors include Richard Williams, Caroline Knight and Simon Shaw-Miller.
Jointly organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery.
Suitable for
- 18+
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£150, £125 concessions
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2482/the-age-of-vermeer-the-art-of-interiors-3778/
Shakespearean London Theatres
Discover playhouses from the Theatre at Shoreditch and Bankside’s Rose to the spectacular rise of venues like the Globe, Fortune and Blackfriars.
Presented by Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT)
Launch event: Tuesday 23 April, 14.00-16.30
Sunday lectures: 28 April- 25 August, 15.00–16.30
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
Where
Victoria and Albert Museum
Admission
£5, £3 concessions
Website
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2411/shakespearean-london-theatres-3699/
Getting there
London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.
The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.
Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.
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