A major 10-day Scottish design festival at the V&A highlighting local and international talent will be a highlight of Dundee’s new Unesco City of Design status.
The cultural title is also expected to kickstart the first cataloguing of Dundee’s estimated 250 pieces of public art in a year-long project.
The man leading the V&A at Dundee design team hailed the “amazing news” of the city’s award from the United Nations organisation.
As well as the Scottish Design Festival, which is likely to be held in 2017, a series of high-profile lectures from international designers is also being planned.
Anna Day, one of the authors of Dundee’s bid, said: “Although these are what we’re calling short-term projects that are in place over the next five years, this is a designation forever and we want to build on that.
“We’re seeking to develop the Scottish Design Festival at V&A Dundee, which will showcase and promote contemporary designers.
“It will be based on a similar model to the V&A in London’s partnership with the London Design Festival. That will be of huge interest.
“Design in Action, Scotland’s national exchange hub for design, are planning a series of lectures along the lines of theSaturday Evening lecture series, bringing international designers and really big names.”
Ms Day said the Dundee public artprogramme, which was one of the first such initiatives in the UK, would also now come back under the spotlight.
She said: “There are 250 pieces of public art in Dundee we believe but they’ve never been catalogued and looked at properly.
“So, for the first time ever, we will send someone out to do a year-long project on every piece of public art in Dundee who made it, who funded it and the history behind it.
“The outcome from that could be an app or a map, something tangible that people can pick up.”
Another project, Dundee Cloth, features fashion designer Hayley Scanlan, who will create products made with jute to link the old and new.
Dundee was named the UK’s firstUnesco City of Design on Monday, inrecognition of its contribution to old and new creative industries.
The title is given to cities with a “richcultural landscape” that give designers and planners opportunities to take advantage of local materials and conditions.
Developments in medicine andbiomedical research in Dundee helped the city gain the award, as did cultural creations such as The Beano and The Dandy and worldwide gaming favourite Grand Theft Auto.
Bilbao in Spain, Curitiba in Brazil,Helsinki in Finland and Turin in Italy also received the recognition this week, joining previous recipients such as Beijing in China and Montreal, Canada.
Ms Day said the Unesco City of Design status would also build on Dundee’s hard work to retain its graduates.
She said: “Once they had to leave the city because the opportunities weren’t there. The city has worked really hard over the last few years to turn that around.”
V&A at Dundee design team leader Maurizio Mucciola, from Kengo Kuma & Associates, told The Courier: “It is amazing news to see that Dundee has won the Unesco City of Design status.
“This is such a great recognition, and well deserved I’d say, for the creativeindustry in the city.
“We at Kengo Kuma & Associates would like to congratulate the city for this achievement and we are also very proud to be able to contribute with our design for the V&A Museum of Design.”