Breaking into the V&A

A behind the scenes visit

A museum-based module for second year art and design students

Project leader: Rebecca Reynolds

‘Breaking into the V&A’, was an optional module for second year art and design students at the University of Brighton, aiming to explore a series of ‘ways in’ to using museums, with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London as a central example.  The course included:

  • Exploring different conceptions of museums’ roles and ideologies now and in the past
  • Exploring motivations for collecting and different types of collection
  • Drawing out changing significances of objects within different places and within different exhibitions
  • Finding out about various areas of museums' work and a variety of museum-based resources students could draw on.  This included talking to artists in residence at the V&A, touring the conservation studios, and visiting the V&A art and design archives
  • Analysing different galleries, using questions developed by the students
  • Designing an exhibition or a piece for an existing exhibition

 
To see the module outline, see Related Files above.

A chart of the course aims is reproduced below:

Course Aims