Displaying items by tag: victoria and albert museum

A Napoleonic medal cabinet has been saved from export from the UK after a successful fundraising campaign to buy it for the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.

In January, on the recommendation of a reviewing committee administered by Arts Council England, the British government decided to defer granting an export license for the cabinet until July, allowing the V&A time to raise the required sum of £534,000.

A national fundraising campaign has been launched to buy four bronze angels that shine a light on the tempestuous relationship between Henry VIII and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.

The Victoria and Albert Museum needs £5m to buy the sculptures that, for centuries, were thought lost. The museum already has half the money, thanks to £2m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and £500,000 from the Art Fund.

The angels were originally commissioned by Wolsey for his tomb. He hoped that they would have sat spectacularly on top of four 9ft (2.75 metres) tall bronze columns.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has signed an agreement to work together with developer China Merchants Group to realize China’s first major cultural institution dedicated to design. Located in the city of Shenzhen, the ‘Shekou Museum’ scheme has been conceived by Fumihiko Maki, and is being built on the site of the Shenzhen Sea World Cultural Arts Center also created by the Japanese architect.

Of the project, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: ‘This pioneering collaboration between the world’s leading museum of art and design and China Merchants Group is a fine example of British expertise fostering fruitful bi-lateral partnerships which contribute to the growth of the creative economy. I wish this innovative endeavour to be a resounding success and I applaud the leading role China Merchants Group and the V&A are playing in strengthening china-UK cultural relationships.’

The American metal sculptor Albert Paley is the subject of a major exhibition currently on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. “American Metal: The Art of Albert Paley” presents a retrospective of Paley’s varied career. The exhibition begins with his work as a jeweler and forger of metal, and progresses through Paley’s recent large-scale sculptural projects. The show was curated by Eric Turner, Curator of Metalwork, Silver, and Jewelry at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Paley began his nearly 50-year career as a goldsmith before shifting his focus to blacksmithing in the early 1970s. Spanning six galleries, the exhibition at the Corcoran presents everything from jewelry, furniture, and small-scale domestic metalwork to gates and doors. The exhibition’s centerpiece is “Portal Gates,” a 1974 commission for the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. One of Paley’s most significant projects, “Portal Gates” exemplifies the artist’s innovative style as well as his mastery of the metalworking craft. The Renwick Gallery, which was the Corcoran’s original home, is currently closed for renovations.  

On July 5, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) will unveil a new gallery filled with objects that have been acquired through the institution’s Rapid Response Collecting initiative. The new collecting approach strives to help the museum engage in a timely way with important global events that shape, or are shaped by design, architecture, and technology.

A decidedly historic institution, the V&A’s new gallery will feature an ever-changing display that illustrates how design reflects and defines how we live together today.

Unhappiness over jobs, pay, and pensions has led workers at numerous museums, galleries, and heritage sites across the UK to go on strike. The walkout has affected some of the country’s biggest art institutions including the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and Tate Liverpool. The National Portrait Gallery released a statement apologizing to patrons and explaining that it was “necessary for some gallery rooms to be closed” due to the strike.

Walkouts are expected to continue through the weekend. Employees of the Natural History Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum are expected to participate in the strike but the institutions will remain open to the public. Workers at national heritage sites, including Stonehenge, are planning to take action on Sunday, June 2, 2013.

The nationwide strike is part of a three-month campaign over an ongoing dispute about workers’ rights. The PCS union, the largest civil service union in the UK, is planning a national strike to take place at the end of June.

A cast of Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Monument to the Burghers of Calais, which has stood in the gardens next to London’s House of Parliament for almost a century, will be moved to the gardens at Perry Green in Hertfordshire, England for the upcoming exhibition Moore Rodin. The show, which opens on March 29, 2013, will compare the works of Henry Moore (1898-1986) and Rodin, two major figures in modern sculpture.

Perry Green, which was Moore’s home for over 40 years until his death in 1986, now houses a gallery, 70 acres of gardens, and the Henry Moore Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for organizing the groundbreaking exhibition, which marks the first time another artist has been shown alongside Moore at Perry Green. Moore was an ardent admirer of Rodin’s work and considered Monument to the Burghers of Calais the greatest public sculpture in London.

Moore Rodin will include a number of loans from the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Musée Rodin is lending Adam (1881), the third maquette for the seminial The Gates of Hell (circa 1881-82), and Walking Man, Large Torso (1906) for the exhibition. The Musée Bourdelle in Paris will lend the Foundation Walking Man (1899), a cast of which Moore owned. In addition to the sculptures, the exhibition will include an extensive selection of drawings by both artists and photographs taken by Moore of his cast of Walking Man at Perry Green.

Moore Rodin will be on view through October 27, 2013.