I was delighted to hear the news last week that the V&A Dundee have opted to extend the Dundee Tapestry exhibition at the museum, which has seen to be widely popular among Dundonians and visitors.
It is now closed after originally opening in January, but it will be coming back for a second run in the summer, giving the chance for more to see what this brilliant art project has to offer.
The Dundee Tapestry is an exhibition I am very familiar with, as I oversaw it come to Verdant Works when I started out as a social media assistant at Dundee Heritage Trust.
The tapestries in question are amazing. They celebrate our city and the industries that have helped it flourish.
I have always been deeply impressed with the detail and time put into making them.
My personal favourite definitely has to be the comics and characters tapestry, celebrating Dundee’s brilliant comic book industry, with appearances from Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger.
The detail is so amazing on this one.
Another favourite has got to be the Dundee Gangs, seeing all the gang jumpers stitched and the names of them is brilliant, from the Lochee Fleet to the Kirkton Huns.
The stitchers really have put a real deal of thought into this amazing project.
With the tapestry exhibition helping bring over 80,000 people through the doors of the museum in the space of four short months, it was a no-brainer to have it extended for even longer – and this news has been met with so much buzz!
V&A is Dundee’s design museum too
The V&A Dundee really know how to do Dundee-themed exhibitions and do it very well.
This is something which has been the case with the Sincerely Valentines exhibition, the Big Weekend Experience, and now with the Dundee Tapestry.
I believe that the V&A Dundee need to do more of this, because it does draw in a crowd, and the Dundee Tapestry opens the doors to many more exhibition ideas, especially originating from the community.
You could have exhibitions with a specific focus on Dundee’s comic books, or scientific discoveries.
It would be great to have Dundee-themed exhibitions run alongside the major flagship exhibitions, with Kimono: Kiyoto to Catwalk being the latest, opening up this week – another exciting exhibition coming up at the museum. I am looking forward to visiting.
But why not now and again host a major exhibition about a Dundee topic in the temporary exhibition space too? It would be great!
I hope the museum can continue building on Dundee-themed exhibitions because for the V&A Dundee to be a success for Dundee, it needs to also tailor to Dundonians.
The V&A Dundee may be Scotland’s design museum, but it mustn’t forget that it is also Dundee’s design museum too.
Conversation