The collapse of the Spiral may still cast a cloud over the V&A, but the museum decided to shake off some of the gloom associated with the project and announce £30m of new galleries to be created over the next three years.
The first gallery, the V&A/Riba architecture gallery, opens this month, and will be followed by a series of galleries devoted to materials and techniques including metalware, contemporary glass and miniatures. The new garden opens in summer 2005, and will be followed by galleries devoted to British sculpture, Islamic art and jewellery. A £4m education centre will be created in the Henry Cole wing.
The plans aim to create a focal point of the garden, designed by eminent landscape architect Kim Wilkie. Visitors from the Cromwell Road entrance will pass under the rotunda, through a newly-designed shop in what is currently the medieval treasury, and into the new British sculpture gallery overlooking the garden. Blinds and film will be removed from the garden windows, making it easier for visitors to orient themselves.
Mark Jones, the director of the V&A, said that the 'plans don't substitute for the Spiral, but are worth doing in their own right'. Restaurants will be reinstated on the north side of the garden, while education will be shifted to the west and temporary exhibitions to the east.
The first £30m phase has been funded by £22m from private donations, £3.4m from the lottery and government grant-in-aid. It will be followed by an even more ambitious phase, including the £29m Medieval and Renaissance galleries, planned for 2009, and the refurbishment of the North and South Courts currently used for temporary exhibitions, storage, and cut up by partition walls.
Jones said that the loss of the Spiral was a 'great disappointment' and added: 'The V&A has the lead position in contemporary creative design but it is not the case that V&A has the right spaces. And if you are a museum that is a national resource for creative design, it follows that it would be great to have a building that is itself emblematic of contemporary architecture.'
To complete the plans, minus the Spiral, the V&A will need to raise £9m a year for the next several years. Jones said the museum had managed that sum in the past three years, but questioned if it was 'desirable or sustainable' in the long term. 'It is a vulnerable position to be in,' he added.
The V&A is not alone in having to raise large sums to sustain and renew its galleries. Both the Tate and the National Gallery are budgeting on raising similar sums from donors and sponsors over the next few years. Charles Saumarez Smith, the director of the National Gallery, echoed Jones' remarks in a recent article in The Times.
'Government funding to the British Museum and National Gallery has declined in real terms…at the same time, problems in the stock market and the absence of changes in the tax regime have meant there has been no significant increase in private giving,' he said.
Jane Morris
The first gallery, the V&A/Riba architecture gallery, opens this month, and will be followed by a series of galleries devoted to materials and techniques including metalware, contemporary glass and miniatures. The new garden opens in summer 2005, and will be followed by galleries devoted to British sculpture, Islamic art and jewellery. A £4m education centre will be created in the Henry Cole wing.
The plans aim to create a focal point of the garden, designed by eminent landscape architect Kim Wilkie. Visitors from the Cromwell Road entrance will pass under the rotunda, through a newly-designed shop in what is currently the medieval treasury, and into the new British sculpture gallery overlooking the garden. Blinds and film will be removed from the garden windows, making it easier for visitors to orient themselves.
Mark Jones, the director of the V&A, said that the 'plans don't substitute for the Spiral, but are worth doing in their own right'. Restaurants will be reinstated on the north side of the garden, while education will be shifted to the west and temporary exhibitions to the east.
The first £30m phase has been funded by £22m from private donations, £3.4m from the lottery and government grant-in-aid. It will be followed by an even more ambitious phase, including the £29m Medieval and Renaissance galleries, planned for 2009, and the refurbishment of the North and South Courts currently used for temporary exhibitions, storage, and cut up by partition walls.
Jones said that the loss of the Spiral was a 'great disappointment' and added: 'The V&A has the lead position in contemporary creative design but it is not the case that V&A has the right spaces. And if you are a museum that is a national resource for creative design, it follows that it would be great to have a building that is itself emblematic of contemporary architecture.'
To complete the plans, minus the Spiral, the V&A will need to raise £9m a year for the next several years. Jones said the museum had managed that sum in the past three years, but questioned if it was 'desirable or sustainable' in the long term. 'It is a vulnerable position to be in,' he added.
The V&A is not alone in having to raise large sums to sustain and renew its galleries. Both the Tate and the National Gallery are budgeting on raising similar sums from donors and sponsors over the next few years. Charles Saumarez Smith, the director of the National Gallery, echoed Jones' remarks in a recent article in The Times.
'Government funding to the British Museum and National Gallery has declined in real terms…at the same time, problems in the stock market and the absence of changes in the tax regime have meant there has been no significant increase in private giving,' he said.
Jane Morris
