How are the V and a Museum funded?

The Fund is provided through Arts Council England Lottery Funding and has been managed by the V&A since 1881.

What is special about the V&A museum?

Its collections span 5,000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium, housed in one of the finest groups of Victorian and modern buildings in Britain . Henry Cole, the V&A's first Director, declared that the museum should be a "schoolroom for everyone".

Who is funding the V and A?

Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee, said: “We're delighted to receive £5 million additional funding from the UK Government today, in addition to the generous support from funders including the Scottish Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dundee City Council and Creative Scotland.

Is Victoria and Albert Museum publicly funded?

Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. VAM is an executive non-departmental public body , sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Do you have to pay for the V and a museum?

V&A South Kensington is open seven days a week. General admission is free and you don't need to book.

Who owns the Victoria and Albert Museum?

The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 owns the site of the V&A, the nearby Science and Natural History Museums, Imperial College, the Royal Colleges of Art and Music and Royal Albert Hall.

How do you fund a museum?

We believe that public investment is a vital element of a mixed funding model for museums, which also includes earned income, lottery grants and philanthropic and charitable giving .

V&A shares over 1.2m objects as it revolutionises digital access to its collection. (2024)

is launchingExplore the Collections, a new digital platform that enables everyone from around the world to search, explore and discover over 1.2m objects from the museum’s collections. This new online experience forms a key part of the V&A’s goal to revolutionise access to national collections, which will culminate in our new collections and research centre at V&A East – an entirely new cultural experience and the first of its kind in the UK.

For the first time,Explore the Collectionsbrings together data, stories, images and content about the V&A’s vast and fascinating collection in one place. With a completely redesigned user experience, it provides a new, fluid and story-led approach, where audiences can search for specific objects or allow the site to recommend content based on their interests.

“This new platform comes at a vital time when the way audiences engage with museums and their collections has changed dramatically – particularly during the last year of the global pandemic. ‘Explore the Collections’is one of the museum’s most significant digital undertakings to date, and supports the V&A’s goal of revolutionising access to the V&A’s collections, and diversifying and expanding audiences, as we expand towards east London and V&A East. While the museum’s doors remain closed,the platformprovides a vital resource for research and discovery of the V&A’s public collections to a worldwide audience.”
Tim Reeve, Deputy Director & COO at the V&A

Explore the Collectionsreimagines access to the V&A’s collections for everyone, from armchair researchers to inspired makers, and brings together data and stories to provide a more intuitive experience for audiences to delve deeper. The new platform includes enhanced search features, unites collections data with our editorial content so audiences can explore the bigger picture, and creates new opportunities to discover, appreciate and learn about similar objects in our collection.

Explore the Collectionshas launched today in beta, and the platform will be continually developed, updated and enriched in the coming months, expanding to later include archives and library collections. The V&A is also encouraging the public to provide feedback on their experience, helping make these national collections even more accessible than before.

“Over the last two years we have reimagined how we want to share information about the incredible objects in our collection. From handbags to Raphael, and from jewellery to kimono, we wanted to celebrate our stories about material culture – now and for the future. The V&A looks after over 2.3m exceptional objects, archives and books, but much of what we hold cannot be displayed in our buildings. This project is about sharing as much as we can, with as many people as possible.”
Kati Price, Head of Digital Media and Publishing at the V&A

In addition to fostering new forms of engagement online, the V&A is transforming how visitors can discover and learn in our physical spaces. With over seven miles of gallery space in South Kensington and Scotland’s first design museum at V&A Dundee, we are also redeveloping the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green to become a world-leading centre of creativity for children, as well as building the new V&A East museum in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. This growing family of sites will provide more space than ever before for our world-leading exhibitions, events and learning programmes.

AlongsideExplore the Collections, access to our collections will be further transformed by a new collections and research centre, just a short walk from the V&A East Museum. This will see the creation of a new type of cultural experience – designed by pioneering architects Diller Scofidio +Renfro – which places visitors at the heart of the V&A’s collections and celebrates the multiplicity of stories, perspectives, skills and disciplines that go into managing an accessible and peerless collection on art, design and performance.

Explore the Collections: vam.ac.uk/collections

Author

Mark Westall

Mark Westall is the Founder and Editor of FAD magazine -

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