Tristram Hunt
(Picture: Dave Benett)“I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.” So said William Morris, pioneer of British socialism, designer and founding figure of the V&A. From the beginning, the South Kensington museum (as it was known) had a strongly democratic ethos. The rooms of the museum were to be ‘The People’s Galleries’, with gas lighting for working people to visit in the evening, a café so that families could have an enjoyable day out, and written labels as a free alternative to an expensive catalogue.
The museum was to be an open, engaging place of enjoyment and learning. In the nineteenth century as today, this founding mission is a reminder of just how significant museums are as physical sites of community and convergence. They are places for nurturing citizenship and collective understanding. And so, today at the V&A we are reflecting - as each generation must - on how we ensure our collections and programmes connect afresh with a fast-changing society.
