The Design Museum in London has announced plans for an ambitious expansion and overhaul of its permanent gallery in time for its 40th anniversary in 2029.
For the project, the Design Museum has been awarded £267,249 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which means it can start a process of community, audience and stakeholder consultation.
This development phase is expected to last up to two years and will begin with the hiring of key roles. This phase will finish with an application for a full grant of £2.7 million from the National Heritage Lottery Fund.
With the full remodelling of the gallery, currently titled Designer Maker User, the Design Museum will be able to rotate its objects more frequently and quickly display new acquisitions.
Additionally, significant and vital conservation work will be carried out on key objects from the collection to protect them for future generations.
The new gallery and its construction will have environmental responsibility at its core.
‘Designer Maker User‘ transformation
Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum, said: “Expanding and improving our permanent gallery for our 40th anniversary is at the heart of our new ‘Transformation 2029’ strategy to future-proof the museum for the next decade and beyond.”
Johanna Agerman Ross, chief curator at the Design Museum, said the current permanent gallery “is no longer reflective of where design is heading”.
“We now have this critical but thrilling opportunity to radically address how we make design more accessible to museum visitors, and how we ensure it’s engaging for many years to come,” she added.
Part of the Design Museum’s ‘Transformation 2029’ plan, the project has been launched after the most successful year for temporary exhibitions in the Design Museum’s history.
The World of Tim Burton exhibition closed in May after welcoming 260,000 visitors, making it the Design Museum’s most popular show ever.
Images courtesy of the Design Museum
