Happy Friday.
Creativity. It’s what makes us. That’s the message you’ll be hearing a lot from the V&A over the coming months as it’s the title of a just-launched major marketing campaign celebrating the Museum’s permanent collection. It’s kicked off with a mesmerizing two minute film which sees a mannequin come to life and explore the South Kensington site in the middle of the night. The V&A tell me the campaign is going to appear across their social channels, including by looking “behind the scenes” at some of the “huge number of objects that feature” in it, and it’ll be shown in cinemas and on video on demand platforms too. It’ll also take over the subway entrance that leads to the Museum from the nearby Tube station. The campaign comes as all museums are still seeing their visitor numbers below pre-pandemic levels. The V&A will be particularly keen to get visitors back as they have three huge new or revamped sites opening over the next three years. Read more about the campaign here from Adweek, and watch the video below.
Till next time.
Maxwell
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This week’s news
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has reopened - although only temporarily. The partial reopening of five out of the forty galleries (which have been shut for 18 months) is to coincide with the city’s hosting of the 2022 Commonwealth Games which kick off in July. In December, these spaces will close again for more than a year while electrical work is carried out. BBC News
Do you have any old bottles of Babycham knocking about in the back of a cupboard? If so, the Black Country Living Museum want to hear from you. They’re calling out for donations of furnishings and objects to help fit out their brick-by-brick rebuilding of a famous demolished pub from nearby Wolverhampton. They’re particularly looking for bar items from the 1960s, especially items tailored for the female market such as Babycham, Cherry B and Golden Godwin. Cheers. The Guardian
Christie’s have said holograms could be the solution to showing artworks around the world that are too fragile to travel. They’ve just shown Edgar Degas’ Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans sculpture in a ‘hologram box’ in London because the original can’t be moved. Christie’s thinks the technology could bring art to people wherever they are, as “in the post-pandemic hybrid world that we live in, people will want the choice” between seeing the hologram or traveling to see the original. Excuse me while I raise an eyebrow or two. The Telegraph
This year marks the centenary of the birth of British artist Lucian Freud, and it’ll be celebrated with a new exhibition at the former home of his grandfather Sigmund Freud. North London’s Freud Museum - in the home where the famous psychoanalysis founder lived after fleeing the Nazis - will show paintings, drawings, family photographs, books and letters which explore Lucian Freud’s childhood, family and friends. It will also celebrate some lesser known aspects of his life, and opens in July. The Guardian
Great Britain has won the top prize at the Venice Biennale for the first time in nearly 30 years. Sonia Boyce, the first black woman to represent the UK, took the award for best national pavilion for her work Feeling Her Way, which combines video, collage, music and sculpture. The Guardian
A tiny book written by novelist Charlotte Brontë when she was 13 has sold at auction for £1m. Measuring just 9.7cm x 6.4cm and containing 10 poems, the UK charity that bought it has donated it to the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire. BBC News
A former senior leader at Tate who was recently announced as the Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, is now out of the new job after less than three months. Cara Courage, formerly Head of Tate Exchange, was appointed in February after an 18 month search, but it’s now been revealed they’ve “parted ways” after the museum decided “to rescind their offer of employment.” No reason has been given. It’s been a very difficult period for the institution, as the previous executive director was fired after allegations of a toxic workplace. Detroit Metro Times
Washington DC could be getting another Smithsonian museum, as the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to establish a commission to consider the feasibility of a new National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. It would follow the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016. The Independent
And finally
It’s the first Monday in May which means it’s the planet’s biggest museum party: the Met Gala. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s 'Gilded Glamour' theme, and take a deep dive into the event’s host - who celebs queue to meet on the night - Vogue’s Anna Wintour.
Fancy taking up one of the most prestigious posts in the art and academia world? It’s just become vacant for the first time in 18 years.
Miss my interview with the Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum as they reopen post-pandemic? Don’t worry, you can catch up here.