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Press images and film rushes are available to download: www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/info/press-images Foreword “Scotland has an extraordinarily rich design heritage and continues to lead the way with creative and inspiring innovations. The Scottish Design Galleries, which will be at the heart of V&A Dundee, will highlight and celebrate the influence of Scottish design both at home and abroad. “These permanent galleries will explore the design process, the international diaspora of Scottish design and the role of design to effect societal change. They will be complemented by a changing programme of exhibitions presenting the best of international design. “The majority of the objects will come from the world-renowned V&A collections and have never been displayed in Scotland before. Others will be loans from collections and designers across Scotland. “Getting to this stage has taken years of diligent research and the hard work goes on. Over the coming months we will continue to secure fascinating objects and begin moving them to the new galleries by the River Tay to prepare for V&A Dundee opening on Saturday 15 September.” - Philip Long, Director, V&A Dundee Introduction to the Scottish Design Galleries The Scottish Design Galleries will be the heart of V&A Dundee and will explore what is unique about Scotland’s design landscape, historically and today. Visitors will experience the processes which underpin Scottish design and discover the everyday relevance of design and how it improves lives. The galleries will include around 300 beautiful and innovative objects representing a wide range of design disciplines from the decorative arts – including furniture, textiles, metalwork and ceramics – to fashion, architecture, engineering and digital design. Based on the upper floor of the museum, the 550m2 space will be split into three sections, each looking in detail at a different area of design. The first section, The story of Scottish design, will look at design as a collaborative process, in which designers and makers draw on what is around them for inspiration. It will also show how Scotland’s design reflects its history, politics and geography, and explore how trade, fashion and migration have helped it achieve international impact. Included will be the rise of influential movements like the Glasgow Style and the impact of design industries like Fife-based linoleum. The second section, Design and society, will focus on how design influences and shapes the places we live and the way we do things. It will look at how designers aim to create solutions to problems and highlight how design can transform communities, organisations, business and services. This section will include an architectural model of Maggie’s Dundee, the first UK building designed by Frank Gehry, and celebrate engineering achievements such as the construction of the Forth Bridge. The final section, Design and the imagination, will explore how design can be used to tell stories and spark the imagination. It will also show how it makes the world more beautiful and fun. Included here will be original Dennis the Menace artwork by David Law for the Beano, as well as contemporary videogames, an area of design that is particularly strong in Dundee. At the centre of the galleries will stand Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s magnificent Oak Room, designed for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street tearooms in Glasgow, which has been in storage since it was salvaged from its original location almost 50 years ago. The tearoom is being restored, conserved and reconstructed in a major partnership with Glasgow Museums. Joanna Norman, Director of the V&A Research Institute and Lead Curator of the Scottish Design Galleries: “The influence of Scottish design is not limited to one country, it has been felt around the world. I think those who visit V&A Dundee will be surprised and intrigued to learn about the impact this relatively small country has, and continues to have, on the world of design. “The Scottish Design Galleries will transform people’s knowledge of Scotland’s legacy of design and innovation. Drawing on the V&A’s world-famous collections of art, design and performance, it has taken several years of careful research to establish this unique collection of objects which together will tell a fascinating and relatively unknown story. “The galleries are currently under construction and over the coming months we will continue to confirm more of the objects that will go on display when the museum opens in September.” For more information, please contact the V&A Dundee press office | [email protected] | +44 (0)1382 411 655 2 Highlight objects When V&A Dundee opens in September 2018, visitors will be able to see around 300 objects which together will tell the remarkable and largely untold historic and contemporary story of Scottish design. The majority of the objects will come from the V&A’s world-renowned collections of art, design and performance, and entry to these galleries will be free. Below are some of the highlight objects that will go on display in the Scottish Design Galleries, including the oldest item in the collection, a 15th century book of illuminated manuscripts, and the most recent, a videogame has only just been completed. The galleries will be complimented by a changing programme of temporary exhibitions. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Oak Room Scale model shown with Joanna Norman, V&A Dundee Curator, and Alison Brown, Glasgow Museums The first confirmed Scottish Design Gallery object was Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Oak Room which is being restored, conserved and reconstructed as a centrepiece of the Scottish Design Galleries in a major partnership with Glasgow Museums. Unseen for 50 years, the tearoom is one of the world-famous architect’s most important unknown interiors, close in design and ambition to the now lost Glasgow School of Art library and set to attract visitors to Dundee from across the world. For more information, please contact the V&A Dundee press office | [email protected] | +44 (0)1382 411 655 3 Salvaged in advance of a hotel development in the 1970s and taken into Glasgow City Council’s museum collections, it is the first time all of the surviving pieces of the interior will be reassembled and put on public display. The interior last functioned as a tearoom in the early 1950s. 2018 is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Book of Hours, known as the ‘Playfair Hours’ This exquisite Book of Hours, decorated with painted miniatures, was made in Rouen in northern France, around 1480, making it the oldest object in the Scottish Design Galleries. Every Book of Hours is unique and usually contains Christian text, prayers and psalms. The month-by-month calendar of feast days in this book includes several Scottish saints, including St Monan, indicating that it was made for a Scottish owner. Many Scottish merchants were present in France at this time, and Scots were also highly valued in France as soldiers, often being rewarded for their loyal service with gifts of land. The Garde Écossaise was a group of elite Scottish soldiers who served as personal bodyguards to the French king from 1418. It is possible this Book of Hours was made for a former officer of this type. The book is known as the ‘Playfair Hours’ because it was owned by a Rev Dr Playfair of St Andrews in the early 20th century. He sold it in 1918 for the benefit of the Scottish Red Cross, on the condition that it became national property. It was bought by Sir Otto John Beit and presented to the V&A the same year. For more information, please contact the V&A Dundee press office | [email protected] | +44 (0)1382 411 655 4 Dress designed by Holly Fulton This dress was part of Holly Fulton’s Autumn/Winter 2011 collection, loosely inspired by the love affair between the Duke of Westminster and the French fashion designer Coco Chanel, set against the backdrop of the Duke’s Scottish estate. The collection featured garments in Scottish fabrics such as tweeds as well as graphic prints including motifs taken from 1930s architecture. This dress features hundreds of carefully hand-drawn lips creating a striking pattern. Each pair of lips is unique and has been strategically positioned on the garment. Holly Fulton was born in Edinburgh in 1977 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She established her own label in 2009 at Fashion East and continues to be based in East London. A multi-award-winning designer, she has become particularly known for her characteristic hand-drawn prints and sources of inspiration ranging from Art Deco to Pop Art. Jacobite garter In the 18th century garters became associated with the expression of political allegiance. This one, made in around 1745, reads ‘Our Prince is brave our cause is just’ and was worn to express support of Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s claim to the throne. Originally one of a pair, it would have been worn above the knee under long skirts, enabling the wearer to express their loyalty to the Jacobite cause in secret. Fans, glasses and snuffboxes also survive that reveal Jacobite sympathies, demonstrating the use of design to express allegiance. The chequered pattern at each end of the garter is a reference to plaid. Bonnie Prince Charlie adopted Highland dress during the Jacobite risings, which relied heavily on the support of clans. Documentary evidence suggests this garter was probably made in Manchester, which specialised in the manufacture of smallwares. In 1748 the Gentleman’s Magazine described such garters as “daubed with plaid and crammed with treason”.