18 THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 284, November 2016
Museums United Kingdom
Design Museum aims
for ‘Tate effect’ after
move to west London
Institution funded by Terence Conran on the South Bank reopens in Kensington this month
OPENINGS
London. When the Design Museum
opens its new £83m home on 24 Novem-
ber, visitors will gain access to its collec-
tion of more than 3,000 objects free of
charge for the first time.
The museum of industrial, graphic,
fashion and architectural design has
lofty ambitions for its new space in
the former Commonwealth Institute,
near Kensington High Street. “We need
to do something like Tate Modern did
for contemporary art for design in
this country,” the museum’s director,
Deyan Sudjic, said at a press conference
in the spring.
The 1960s building—which has a
striking hyperbolic paraboloid roof that
dips in the centre—has been refurbished
by the architect John Pawson. The new
space is three times the size of the muse-
um’s former home near Tower Bridge.
Visitors will be greeted by a display of
hundreds of everyday consumer objects
that were selected by the public on the
museum’s website ahead of the opening.
(Contenders include cutlery, a drill and a
kitchen mixer.)From Braun to Apple
The collection traces the origins of influ-
ential objects, including products by
Braun from the 1960s and Apple today,
and offers a behind-the-scenes look at
the manufacturing process. The museum
hopes its interactive approach, coupled
with a new location two underground
stops from the Victoria and Albert (V&A)
Museum, will draw more than 500,
visitors in the building's first year.ENGLANDArts Council England inds money to
boost support for the regions
Q Arts Council England plans to increase funding for museums
and arts organisations outside London by 4% from 2018 to 2022.
The latest budget released by the grant-making body earmarks
£622m a year from the UK government and the National Lottery
for distribution nationwide during that period. The lion’s share,
£409m a year, will be available to the council’s National Portfolio
Organisations (NPOs) applying for awards of between £40,
and more than £1m. The deadline for applications is 1 February- The pot includes an extra £37m a year to support culture in
the regions. According to Darren Henley, the chief executive of
Arts Council England, the “ambitious” new budget “is based on a
welcome standstill settlement from government”. H.M.
The museum’s
new home,
in the former
Commonwealth
Institute, is a
1960s building
noted for its
hyperbolic
paraboloid roof.
The space was
refurbished by
the architect John
PawsonFitzwilliam to open
founder’s library
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will
soon allow visitors access to one of its hid-
den treasures. The Founder’s Library, which
has never before been regularly accessible
to the public, will open for tours in Decem-
ber. The ornately decorated room, designed
by Charles Cockerell in 1848, houses 7,
books donated by the seventh Viscount
Fitzwilliam. The museum is hoping to
present changing displays of rare books
and archival documents in the library after
its planned extension is completed in five
to seven years. M.B.Projects that make an
impact: curators pick their
favourite designs on show
at the new museum
Better Shelter (2016)
Designed by Johan Karlsson, Dennis Kanter, Christian Gustafsson,
John van Leer and Tim de Haas, in partnership with the Ikea
Foundation and UNHCR
This project sums up the Beazley Designs of the Year prize and
shows how the design industry can use its skills and knowledge
to solve a real and pressing issue—that of temporary shelter
for displaced people. Better Shelter has developed safer, more
digniied housing for those who have been a ected by armed
conlict and natural disasters. We will show the front face of the
tent, packaging, instructions, images and a ilm.
Gemma Curtin, curator, Beazley Designs of the Year (until
19 February 2017)M1 motorway sign (1957-67)
Designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert
One of the most ambitious and e ective information design
projects ever executed in Britain is the road and motorway
signage system. Before the uniied, countrywide system, local
authorities produced signs according to their own criteria and
frequently used words rather than images. Kinneir and Calvert
irst introduced their signs to the new M1 motorway. They went
on to redesign Britain’s entire road-sign system. This life-sized
reproduction from our collection shows the dimensions of one
of Kinneir and Calvert’s full-scale motorway signs.
Alex Newson, senior curator, Design MuseumPan-European Living Room (2016)
Designed by OMA
In response to the recent Brexit vote, OMA, the architecture
irm founded by Rem Koolhaas, is presenting the Pan-European
Living Room. Furnished with design objects from each of the
28 EU member states, the installation proposes that our very
notion of the domestic interior has been shaped by an ideal of
European co-operation and trade. The centrepiece is a vertical
blind in the form of the OMA-designed barcode lag for the EU.
Justin McGuirk, chief curator, Fear and Love: Reactions to a
Complex World (until 23 April)“We want the Design Museum to be a
cross between the Science Museum and
the V&A,” a spokesman says.
Inaugural exhibitions include 11
newly commissioned installations that
examine the human emotions that drive
design (Fear and Love: Reactions to a
Complex World, until 23 April 2017), and
a presentation of work by winners of the
museum’s annual prize (Beazley Designs
of the Year, until 19 February 2017).
Funding the project has been a chal-
lenge, even though the site’s developer
donated both the building and the land.
The designer Terence Conran, who
founded the museum in 1989, gave £17.5m
(including £10m from the sale of the
old museum site). Major grants include
£4.9m from the Heritage Lottery Fund
and £3m from Arts Council England.
Aimee DawsonDESIGN MUSEUM: FRENCH+TYE. BETTER SHELTER: MÄRTA TERNE. SIGN: LUKE HAYES. LIVING ROOM: © OMA. FIZWILLIAM: © THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM