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V&A South Kensington The V&A website

www.vam.ac.uk

The V&A website brings the collections,ideas and activities of the Museum to peopleround the world.There they can findinformation about 27,000 objects, and ontopics ranging from portrait photography toArt Deco, from kimonos to cloisonné andfrom Raphael to Westwood.Wherever peopleare in the world, they can also contribute toour site with their memories and opinions,images, designs and creative writing.

In 2007 the V&A was the first UK Museumto offer high-resolution image downloadsfree of charge for non-commercial use.Increasingly, www.vam.ac.uk acts as a keyresource for creative practitioners in the UKand abroad.

Between April 2006 and March 2007there were 19.4 million user sessions on oursite from around the world. Up to 1000people a month use one of the foreignlanguage pages that provide at least a basicintroduction to the museum.

V&A Enterprises (VAE)

VAE contributes to the V&A financially, inraising brand awareness and by promotingthe Museum’s mission to inspire design.TheMuseum’s international dimension is veryimportant to VAE. It provides inspiration fordesigns, products and publications andbrings overseas markets.

VAE businesses can work independent ofthe Museum programme, using knowledgeof overseas markets and commercial viability.Publications, translation rights and productlicenses are sold internationally. Our picturelibrary has agency partnerships in the USA,Japan and Europe. Museum activity such astouring exhibitions can boost publishing,licensing, and retail hugely, building both animmediate market and a wider awareness ofthe Museum and all the brand has to offer.

In our London shops the appeal ofinternationally-sourced products is strong.VAE buyers work with weavers in India,studio ceramic artists in Turkey, jewellerydesigners in Japan and embroiderers inKashmir to bring together the best of world-wide product design.

Visit the V&A shop at www.vandashop.com

Further information Contact vanda@vam.ac.uk

Images courtesy of:Fine Arts Museums of San FransiscoLee Miller Archives EnglandRankinV&A Images

www.vam.ac.uk

V&A International2007 – 2009

The V&Ain the World –

The World in the V&A

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As the world’s leading museum of artand design, the V&A enriches people’s livesby promoting the practice of design andincreasing knowledge, understanding andenjoyment of the designed world.

The V&A’s collections have always drawnin examples of art and design from manycountries. The magnificent Ardabil Carpetwas acquired in 1895 to illustrate thebeauty of Middle Eastern decoration.People come to the V&A from around theworld: 40% of our 2,500,000 visitors eachyear come from outside Britain.

V&A collections travel the world throughtouring exhibitions and loans. Throughthem, we build relationships with manymuseums and galleries. Our books aredistributed worldwide and include numerousforeign language editions.We are linking tomuseums in regions with growing culturalconnections to the UK, including China, Indiaand Russia. Our lively and innovative websiteincludes material in several languages.V&A Enterprises, our commercial wing, hasglobal reach.These varied strands ofinternational work enrich the V&A andcontribute to the UK’s cultural profile.

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USA and CanadaThrough touring exhibitions and loans,

the V&A has a strong presence in the USAand Canada. Modernism was shown to greatcritical acclaim at the Corcoran Gallery of Art,Washington DC, in 2007.

In 2007 and 2008,The Art of Lee Millerwill travel to Philadelphia and San Francisco,and Medieval and Renaissance TreasuresFrom the V&A will continue its five-venuetour across Canada and the USA.

Between 1995 and 2005, the V&A lentobjects to 181 venues in North America.

The V&A enjoys a significant relationshipwith the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco(FAMSF) marked by a Memorandum ofUnderstanding.The first joint project was theVivienne Westwood exhibition.

International Arts and Crafts (2006/07)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (deYoung), 157,000 visits

Vivienne Westwood: A Retrospective (2006/07)Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (deYoung), 145,000 visits

Modernism: Designing a New World(2006/07),The Corcoran Gallery of Art,Washington D.C. 93,000 visits

South and South-East Asiaand Australia

A major V&A exhibition, Indian Life andLandscape, will be at the Chhatrapati ShivajiMuseum in Mumbai in late 2008. Portraits ofPrinces – Photographs from the LafayetteCollection has been shown in Mumbai andJodhpur and at the Islamic Art Museum,Kuala Lumpur.We plan to expand thenetwork of Indian venues for touringexhibitions, especially those on contemporarythemes.

V&A curators and conservators arefrequent visitors to South Asian artinstitutions and research visits are oftenmade by museum professionals in India viathe Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections atthe V&A. A series of visits by V&A curators isplanned for 2008/9 to the Salar Jung Museumin Hyderabad, India, to research collections ofwestern decorative arts and paintings.

Vivienne Westwood: A Retrospective (2006/07)Thailand Creative Design Centre, Bangkok,45,000 visits

Cinema India:The Art of BollywoodNational Galleryof Victoria,Melbourne,8,800 visits

V&A International – at home

We aim to reflect the diverse culturalbackgrounds of UK citizens and overseasvisitors at our London sites.We work withlocal communities as well as internationalorganisations and artists. Some examples:

• The opening of the Jameel Gallery of IslamicArt in July 2006 was celebrated with anextensive events programme including threeweekends of Persian,Turkish and Arabthemed activities, a Contemporary Friday Lateand a fashion show.• The V&A Museum of Childhood opened‘The World in the East End’gallery in January2004. It explores the traditions andcontribution of local communities.• Research into our collections identifiedthousands of objects relevant to Black Africanand Caribbean audiences. Some weredisplayed alongside works by contemporaryartists in Uncomfortable Truths:The Shadowof Slave Trading on Contemporary Art andDesign, marking the 2007 bicentenary of theParliamentary abolition of the Trans-AtlanticSlave Trade.• Every year the V&A celebrates festivals suchas Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah and Christmas, aswell as Carnival and Chinese New Year.• The V&A has sustained collaboration withJain and Sikh communities since dedicatedexhibitions in 1995 and 1999 respectively.• The V&A leads Image & Identity, anationwide museum education consortiumfor young people.Themes have includedIslamic Cultures in 2006 and Slavery in 2007.

"Well designed, written and illustrated...Curator Zoe Whitley has assembled aninteresting group of internationalcontemporary artists who use very differentmedia and ways of thinking to discussshared interests in race, history andinequality." On Uncomfortable Truths, Museums JournalApril 2007

EuropeThe V&A has close and frequent contacts

in Europe, especially through lending andborrowing for temporary exhibitions. V&Astaff maintain close links with theircolleagues in European museums, links thatare strengthened through trans-nationalemployment and internships.

An example of a partnership project isthe detailed research on the so-calledEltenberg Reliquary, an important latetwelfth-century object made in Cologne,undertaken by conservators and curators atthe V&A and the Decorative Arts Museum inBerlin.

In Russia, the V&A is working with theKremlin Museums to produce twoexhibitions which will feature 18th and 19thcentury dress and accessories.

Modernism: Designing a New World(2006/07)MARTa Herford, Germany, 35,000 visits

East AsiaTouring exhibitions have, since the 1990s,

demonstrated the appeal of the V&A toJapanese audiences. Japan remains animportant and lively area for our exhibitions.Links with Chinese museums are growing.Shanghai Museum loaned highlights of itscollection of 17th century painted porcelain tothe V&A in 2006. For the Shanghai WorldExpo in 2010, we are collaborating with theInternational Expo Bureau on a touringexhibition about Expo Cities. In Korea,highlights of our international ceramicscollection will tour to Seoul in 2008 and we are preparing a survey of the Koreancollections with the Korean NationalResearch Institute for Cultural Heritage.

Ota Memorial Museum of Art,Tokyo,25,400 visitsMasterpeices of Ukiyo-e from the V&A (2006/07)

The Middle EastThe V&A collection of Islamic art from

the Middle East is of world significance. Ithas been given new prominence by thetouring exhibition, Palace and Mosque,which attracted almost 300,000 visits in theUSA, Japan and Britain (2004 to 2006), andby the opening of the acclaimed JameelGallery of Islamic Art at the V&A in July2006.

Lending to Middle Eastern institutions isincreasing and museum professionals andadvisers from the region have come to theV&A for formal and informal professionaldevelopment.We are members of theconsortium of European and Arab museumsthat produced the Discover Islamic Artwebsite, part of Museum With No Frontiers.(www.discoverislamicart.org)

Research in USAThe V&A maintains a number of researchcollaborations with US institutions, includingcuratorial exchanges with the Yale Center forBritish Art and the Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York. Key US funders, including theJ. Paul Getty Trust and the Samuel H. KressFoundation, have supported major V&Aconservation and cataloguing projects, whilecollaborations with the FAMSF and theCorcoran Gallery of Art,Washington DC, haveunderpinned research for major forthcomingexhibitions such as Aestheticism (2011).

Research in EuropeThrough research for the Cold War Modernexhibition (V&A 2008), we have developedclose working relationships with museumsin Moscow, Munich, Frankfurt, Lodz,Warsawand Zagreb.We are also collaborating withthe Art and Exhibition Hall of the FederalRepublic of Germany, Bonn, on a majorexhibition about the foundation and legacyof the V&A.

Research in Japan and ChinaLacquer specialists from the V&A, Japan andthe US are researching the Mazarin chest.For more information see:http://www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/conservation/research/projects/mazarin_chest/index.html

China Design Now, 2008, involved a highlevel of collaboration in Beijing and London.

Modernism: Designing a New World,V&A South Kensington

Eltenberg Reliquary, German (Rhenish, Cologne); c.1180

Fine Arts Museum of San Fransisco(FAMSF), USA

Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art,V&A South Kensington

St Louis 1904 Daily OfficialProgram 1904. Cover illustrationsigned 'St.John'.To be featured in A Century of Olympic Posters.

Tuk Tuk in Bangkok advertising Vivienne Westwood: A Retrospective

El Anatsui,Akua's SurvivingChildren, installation,found woodand metal,height 165cm,widthand depth variable. CourtesyOctober Gallery,London.Shown in Uncomfortable Truths

Chinese New Year eventat South Kensington

Research in South and South-East AsiaV&A / London College of Fashion research ontextile dyeing and printing in South India is acurrent area of pioneering work.

Miss Lee Miller (coiffure byDimitry) Published 1933.©Lee Miller Archives, England2007. All rights reserved.

V&A InternationalExhibitions 2007/08 and beyondArt Deco Australia

The Art of Lee Miller

Baroque: 1600 - 1800

A Century of Olympic Posters

China Design Now

Cinema India:The Art of Bollywood

Cold War Modern

Digital Responses

Indian Life and Landscape:Western Viewsof the Subcontinent

Indian Temple Sculpture

Fashion and Sport

The Golden Age of Couture

Lafayette Archive: Indian and South EastAsian Sitters

Lafayette Archive: India’s Ruling Princes Maharajas

Masterpieces in Ceramics from the Victoriaand Albert Museum

Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Victoriaand Albert Museum

Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from theVictoria and Albert Museum

Modernism

Morris to Mingei: Arts and Crafts in Britain,Europe and Japan

Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft

Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design

Telling TalesVivienne Westwood: A Retrospective

The V&A touring exhibitions listed will beshown at 44 venues in 16 countries between2007 and 2010, from Paris to Melbourne andfrom Mumbai to Seoul. For information onbooking V&A International exhibitions see:http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/touring_exhibs/index.html or contact touringexhibiitons@vam.ac.uk

Dates are subject to confirmation