The Power of Making at the V&A

Craft & Design Education Home
The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum

A remarkable exhibit on the maker movement had been running since September at London’s Victoria and Albert museum, having just closed in January.  A visit over the holidays to London gave me a chance to see the exhibit for myself. The show collects the products, processes, and tools from dozens of makers throughout the world, focusing on artistic, non-commercial, or just plain fun design, craft, and artwork. Each of the displays highlighted in the show demonstrated the set of maker skills needed to create it.

The displays ranged from wooden bicycles and hammered metal to DIY 3D printing and mobile robotics (with textiles, dolls, video, and the odd six-necked guitar thrown in). Overall, it paints a comprehensive picture of the many aspects of the worldwide maker community. The video below provides an overview of the exhibition:

Overall, the whole presentation was a celebration of the maker community and those in it. The hall was filled when I was there with crowds of interested and engaged onlookers, with a line waiting to get in. Between the presentation at the highest level of British museum curation and the viewer participation, it would be hard not to see that the efforts of makers worldwide are striking a chord with the public. Although the exhibit itself is closed, the catalog is still available, which has a summary of the works and the participating artists.

More:
CRAFT: POW Cross-Stitch at the V&A

12 thoughts on “The Power of Making at the V&A

  1. automativelogos says:

    Nice posting :) thanks for the share :)

  2. RobinE says:

    wish I’d known about it before it closed ;-(.

  3. Kenneth Warren says:

    This exhibition was wonderful. So many interesting things, from the wire gorilla sculpture at the entrance to the wooden mech. It was great to see the various 3D printers up close instead of just reading about them (would have been nice to have a live demo). Even my two teenage sons fond lots of interest in there which was a bonus. Shame it had to end.

  4. John Downie says:

    A really good exhibition marred by a terrible lack of information on each exhibit. I understand an exhibition designer wanting to minimise explanations and let the objects speak for themselves but I wanted to know so much more. Even a QR code with a link to a deeper information for Android or iPhone would have been good. The catalogue didn’t say much more.

  5. vulpestruments says:

    How on earth did i miss this? i only work around the corner from the V&A!

    I need to pay more attention to what they do over there…

  6. blue beanie belle says:

    That is one place that I always wanted to visit, but it was between that and the Sherlock Holmes Museum and that was elementary!! :)

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

Biomolecular cryptologist, robotics hacker, bad skateboarder and all-around mad artist.

View more articles by R. Mark Adams

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK