14 Jul 2023
Young V&A opens its doors in London
BY Tom Walker
Young V&A, a new museum dedicated entirely to children, has opened its doors in London, UK.
The new, £13m attraction has been created to "herald a shift in the way museums are designed for young people".
Designed by De Matos Ryan and AOC Architecture – in collaboration with children – the free museum explores art, design and performance and is dedicated to children aged between 0 and 14.
It is the product of a seven-year project that involved detailed consultation with more than 22,000 children, young people, parents and teachers.
Located in a Grade II*-listed building that previously housed the V&A Museum of Childhood, the construction of the museum has taken three years.
Created with the input from children, the museum has been shaped around their interests to encourage playful learning, foster creative agency, and spark imaginations.
Young V&A will house three galleries – Play, Imagine and Design – which are "rooted in research into early years’ development".
They will help children build the skills and creative confidence they need to thrive in a fast-changing world.
The galleries include interactives and hands-on activities for all ages.
These include colourful and tactile sensory landscapes for infants and toddlers, performance and story-telling spaces for early readers and writers, an open design studio where children can learn from leading designers, as well as topical contemporary displays and a games design space for teens.
Among the highlights is an interactive Minecraft installation in the Play Gallery’s game design space, ‘The Arcade’.
The installation, built by Blockworks with support from Mojang and Microsoft, begins in a recreation of Young V&A’s Town Square, before taking visitors across real and imaginary worlds created by Minecraft players across the globe.
A spokesperson for Young V&A said: "Co-designed with children and young people, Young V&A is a free, national museum designed to showcase the power of creativity in children’s lives as they build new skills and develop the creative confidence needed to thrive in our fast-changing world.
"It is a ‘doing’ museum – a joyful, buzzing, and optimistic place underpinned by the power of design and creativity."
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