Abstract
Design museums are under-represented in the literature of museums and genre museums. Previous studies of design museums have concentrated on single examples and typologies. Other scholarship and media have examined the case study, the Design Museum, London, at specific historical moments or focused on a single aspect, for example, the designer visitor. This thesis presents a longitudinal study of the Museum as both organisation and institution using archived texts, media, and interviews with protagonists. The case study shows the development of a design museum as the site of discourse formation and organisational change, in order to answer the question, what is a design museum for? A process of crisis, resolution, and change is used to reveal power structures within and around the organisation, which shape the aims and purpose of the institution through the ambitions of key protagonists. This has been achieved using a two-part methodology within a multidisciplinary framework. Through close description and textual analysis, the public-facing institution, its programming, buildings, and spaces, are identified as sites of discourse formation. Theories and language from business, management, and organisational studies describe the internal dynamics of the organisation through the negotiations of key individuals, leadership, management, and staff. Taken together, this two-part methodology presents the symbiotic workings of the organisation and institution.The evolution of the Design Museum is traced from its origin story through three moments of crisis, resolution and change. In phase one, the Boilerhouse Project at the Victoria and Albert Museum, new approaches to design curation brought contemporary programming into the V&A. However, the exhibition, Taste, demonstrated why this potentially beneficial partnership broke down. In phase two, the Shad Thames Design Museum represented urban regeneration and the entrepreneurial designer decade. However, one director’s efforts to diversify programming and audiences led to trial by media and regime change. Moving into phase three, the Museum’s relocation to a site in Kensington constitutes the long-term resolution of previous issues. New funding sources and management structures have enabled diversity and acknowledge complexity. This thesis shows conflict and crisis resolved into change – to leadership, management, programming, buildings, and spaces – as the case-study design museum is continuously remade. In answer to the question, what is a design museum for, the idea of a design museum is shown to be invested with diverse aims and purposes, through the ambitions of protagonists and the engagement of stakeholders. In the process, changing definitions and discourses of design have shaped, and are shaped by, the design museum.
| Date of Award | Oct 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Sponsors | AHRC |
| Supervisor | Damon Taylor (Supervisor), Jonathan Woodham (Supervisor), Mr Deyan Sudjic (Supervisor) & Guy Julier (Supervisor) |