please empty your brain below

If these initiatives keep universal entry free, then I welcome them. I love the fact that I can pop into any of these great museums when passing for a short visit, which I often take advantage of.
£20 for a Pink Floyd exhibition?! They have "sold-out"...to the "man" and become...another brick in the wall!
There's also a Sackler wing at the Royal Academy which is presumably named after the same philanthropist. Another to add to the list!

dg writes: Added, thanks.

I agree with Ken that museums and galleries are forced to look to corporate income to keep free entry, that is a price worth paying.
A lot of gates to close along the arches of the masonry screen.
Probably needed for when the square inside is hired out.
As someone else has commented, the blockbuster exhibitions help to keep the rest of the collection free to look at and in good condition, and most museums and galleries now rely on them. The hall is a big empty space waiting to have stuff put in it, and the bigger it is the more flexible too. I tend to avoid most blockbusters, because they're stupidly crowded and you often can't see much (although the biggest crowds always tend to be in front of the text boards rather than the artworks themselves, ironically). If this helps to make the V&A's more exciting and less crowded, good.

Btw, some friends of mine from Luxembourg tried to go to the Pink Floyd exhibition on the same day. It was apparently sold out all day, which probably didn't help when you were trying to use the screens...

dg writes: Lots of walk-up tickets were available on Monday.
When I first saw the hoardings going up, I was a little concerned they were going to 'patch up' the war damage from WW2 on the outer wall.
I'm pleased it's been retained, to provide a reminder of how close this great building once came to receiving a direct hit.
The decision to have 'free' anything is a political decision ..... we don't have free healthcare in this country any more (we have to pay now for lots of bits of it) but we DO have free entry to all sorts of places, and also a 'free' nuclear deterrent.... The cafe doesn't pay for this; the government decides what's 'free' and pays for it with our taxes. The gift shop culture people here are extolling pays for the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. And another way to look at it is to say we pay for all the tourists to get in free so they'll give the rich merchants all their foreign currency.
Very photogenic.
They will need tall gates (plus 24-hour security) to stop people coming in at night to have parties or climb on the cafe roof.
Free museums...
I am heading north today to the National Mining Museum for the coal mine tour.
I was surprised to see that it is free, as is the one in Wales, but the Scotish on you pay for!
I rarely visit the London museums now even though the tube/bus is free for me. I will look at the new entrance next time I am in Exhibition Road but I doubt if I will go inside.
That slopy roofed pavilion would be perfect for a Sainsbury's Local. I wonder how long it will be before they have to install barriers to stop roof surfers.

Haven't been yet but even from the photos I agree with the corporate vacuity verdict - so at odds with the rest of the V&A buildings.

Heard the then Director describe the V&A as a 'brand' a couple of years back. Tells you all you need to know. *sigh*
The second and third photos in particular actually look like those computer generated 'artist's impressions' created for new developments.
This is an exhibition and events space, sure, but it's a means to an end, part of a broader plan. Moving the blockbusters (currently Pink Floyd) into the new hall will mean that the historic South Courts (see pic here) can be reinstated, creating space for plenty more Stuff from the permanent collection to go on view. The permanent collection is the heart of the V&A, and the Sackler/Sainsbury "intervention" is a very effective way to give it more breathing space. (It'll be a much better exhibition space too.)
As an uprooted Londoner who only sees London as a visitor from overseas this item shows how museum curator vision changes things. If 'event space' helps fund free admission then so be it. The core collection of the V&A is too important to be lost to public access. The V&A for better or worse was a pioneer of improving the quality and quantity of the museum shop back in the early 70's selling modern design and supporting living artists. As an art student back in the 60's I hope the Victorian plaster galleries remain for ever, the collection core must be sustained and if courtyards and display areas as strange as these are the price 'that's life'
One of the cast courts has been superbly restored, and the other is now closed for the same work to take place. I remember when the cast courts were a Victorian embarrassment, now they're a jewel in the crown!
I'd be more impressed by philanthropists if they did it without getting their name tacked onto everything. There ought to be a way of naming things so we know that SOMEONE was responsible so we could be grateful, without having the WHO overemphasised.
@ Andrew S, anonymity does happen with smaller contributions. Tate Modern has notices in the Ladies, and presumably the Gents too, saying that 'a large commercial firm' (or similar wording)is funding all supplies needed there. Not the most glamorous way to donate, but still appreciated.
We when we went to look at this new entrance we were struck how very very bright the courtyard was. Double sunglasses bright in fact. And with so little/no shade.

It's also a shame that the very very bright white porcelain tiles couldn't have been sourced from Stoke on Trent/anywhere in the UK, in view of the museum's tradition of collecting Victorian ceramics and Tristram Hunt's recent links with Stoke on Trent as its MP.

We too expected to see some lovely new rooms full of lovely hitherto stored away stuff, but not so, though if the new spaces provide a new home to the special shows and educational activities then an equivalent space will presumably become available elsewhere in the building where more lovely old stuff can be put on show.

With all its new subterranean passageways, I expected this new area would have a dramatic new link to the existing underground walkway between the museums and South Ken station, but maybe that's to come.










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