V&A Dundee design in motion sets off in style

V&A Dundee’s first national touring exhibition, Design in Motion, has embarked on a 17-week journey across Scotland. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Travelling Gallery, is housed in a custom built gallery in a bus.

Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee, invited senior pupils from Craigie High School to be the first visitors on board at City Square, Dundee interacting with the new exhibition and the associated mobile app, ‘Design Scotland’.

Part of the new museum’s pre-opening programme, Design in Motion is the second V&A Dundee project to benefit from funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

The exhibition includes leading fashion designer Holly Fulton, BAFTA award-winning game designer Sophia George and innovative product designer and artist Geoffrey Mann. All seven featured designers use digital technologies to push the boundaries of their discipline, enabling them to demonstrate how design can be put to work to reconstruct our heritage, visualise the unseen, and create products not previously possible.

The tour will visit more than 70 venues across Scotland after leaving Dundee on 27 February. Locations include cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, as well as rural locations including Lewis, Harris and Skye. Venues range from secondary schools and art colleges to museums, community centres and libraries. The final stop will be the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in June. It is anticipated that more than 10,000 people will visit the exhibition in total, with additional audiences taking part in events, activities and digital engagement.

Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee said:

“The launch of this national tour represents another milestone for V&A Dundee. Design in Motion allows us to share the excitement, innovation and breadth of design with audiences across the country.

“Through the tour we can showcase some of our most extraordinary contemporary designers and raise the profile of design and its benefits to society across Scotland. It helps demonstrate that design is a wonderful and very viable career choice for young people and there is a broad range of disciplines to consider.

“The exhibition is just a snapshot of the creative riches that V&A Dundee will showcase, allowing us to get out and talk to our audiences and build real excitement towards opening in 2018.“

‘Design Scotland’, the new museum’s first app, has been created by Dundee-based tech developers eeGeo to support the show. Enabled by a next generation 3D mapping platform, users help to create a design map of Scotland by sharing their design stories, icons and photos.

Mike Cantlay, VisitScotland Chairman, said:

“I'm delighted to see V&A Dundee embark on the next stage of its journey to engage audiences across Scotland.  We are a nation renowned for our design and innovation. This tour is a chance to inspire people of all ages about the role design plays in shaping our heritage and cultural identity, ahead of the arrival of what is set to be one of the country's top attractions. V&A Dundee will generate a wealth of tourism opportunities, creating new jobs and bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area."

Sarah Saunders, Head of Learning and Engagement said:

“We want to learn from our audiences as well as about them. We hope the Design Scotland app will encourage people to pin whatever excites them most about design in Scotland – architecture, digital, games, engineering, fashion, furniture, graphics, jewellery, performance, product, textiles, transport… Or it might be their favourite Scottish designer, shop, retailer or manufacturer.  The app will allow us to do this together in a playful and innovative way.”

The Travelling Gallery has over 30 years experience of bringing exhibitions to locations throughout Scotland.  Based at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, the Travelling Gallery is owned and managed by the City of Edinburgh Council and funded through Creative Scotland.

Alison Chisholm, Travelling Gallery Curator, said:

“This has been such an ambitious and fun partnership and we are very happy to bring Design in Motion on tour in the Travelling Gallery. We love our new look! We will be visiting some familiar places but are also looking forward to making new connections along the way, to increase the reach of the Travelling Gallery for future tours - both physically and digitally.”

An exciting programme of events and activities is planned, to inspire people of all ages and abilities to get involved in and have fun with design creativity. This includes a variety of talks around the country with the exhibition’s featured designers, live app-pinning sessions and opportunities for older audiences to engage with digital technology.

Design in Motion was developed in partnership with the Travelling Gallery and generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, The Mathew Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, The Scottish Government, and City of Edinburgh Council.

For all V&A Dundee 'Design in Motion' media enquiries, interview opportunities and images, please contact Jennie Patterson Tel: 07773 849586

For all other media enquiries please contact Tara Wainwright Tel: 07950 953636 tara.wainwright@vandadundee.org