Of course, anyone can go into the Design Museum as it’s one of the capital’s free musuems, but last week 20 or so London Society members had the place to ourselves in an after hours tour. Even betterm the tour was conducted by the Director, Deyan Sudjic.
As might be expected, it was an exceptionally interesting and informative evening, with Deyan explaining the history of the museum and its transformation of the old Commonwealth Institute into which the collections were moved at the end of last year. (Jessica Cargill Thompson visited the museum when it opened, her report is here.) We were given the background to the works in the current temporary exhibition “Fear and Love”, as well as getting to see the permanent collections in Designer/Maker/User galleries upstairs. Deyan also took us around some of the semi-public and non-public areas of the building, including the library (with its recreation of Robin Day’s studio) and even the offices. Much of London’s recent and future economic strength comes from the creative industries and it is right that the capital has a museum that can do justice to the history and the present of designers and others who innovate, create and improve the objects we use every day. The Design Museum is open every day from 1000-1800 and can be found at 224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AGFear and Love runs until 23 April.
