V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum, has generated £304 million for the Scottish economy to date according to a new independent impact report published on the museum’s fifth birthday.
The research by BOP Consulting and tialt found that V&A Dundee generated a gross value added (GVA) impact of £234 million in the five years since opening, in addition to a £70 million GVA impact from the construction of the museum alongside many wider cultural and social benefits for Dundee and Scotland.
Scotland’s design museum was created to inspire and empower people through design, bringing together design from Scotland and all over the world through its spectacular architecture, exhibitions, free displays, the permanent Scottish Design Galleries and a programme of learning, community engagement, talks and events to spark curiosity in people of all ages.
Key findings from the report include:
- 1.7 million visits to the museum since opening, despite the impact of Covid, including 500,000 people who came to Dundee for the first time as part of trips to V&A Dundee
- Over 270,000 engagements with the community and learning programme since opening, including in-person events, digital workshops during lockdown, outreach in the city, and free design activities for children and families
- Almost 10,000 pupils, teachers and educators have engaged with the museum since opening through a partnership with Dundee City Council
- Over 2,000 learning and community events and projects have taken place
- V&A Dundee contributed 1,685 jobs to Scotland, including 450 in Dundee, according to data from April to September this year
- Total GVA economic impact of £304 million for Scotland, including £109 million for Dundee
- Dundee has continued to develop as a destination with the city and its many visitor attractions welcoming 1.25 million visitors in 2022, up from 880,000 in 2017
In its first five years, V&A Dundee has worked with a range of charities and community organisations, including Alzheimer Scotland, Dundee Carers Centre, Dundee International Women’s Centre, Dundee Women’s Aid, Education Scotland and NHS Tayside, creating partnerships and events to make the museum accessible to everyone and to use design to improve lives. It has also worked with multiple designers and cultural organisations across Dundee, Scotland and around the world.
Design education and the participation of young people is at the heart of V&A Dundee. Before opening in 2018, the museum partnered with Dundee City Council on the Teacher Secondment Programme, enabling a teacher to be based full-time in the museum to work closely with the city’s schools, and also jointly created a Young People’s Collective for 14- to 24-year-olds to influence the museum’s development and learn about creative careers.
Since opening, the museum has worked with all primary and secondary schools in Dundee and a growing number nationally, with over 100 Scottish schools engaging with V&A Dundee so far in 2023 alone. Both projects continue to this day, shaping how the museum continues to grow and change.
Leonie Bell Director of V&A Dundee said, “Since opening, V&A Dundee has emerged as an important new voice for design and a gathering place for visitors from near and far, contributing to Dundee and Scotland’s creative, cultural and economic growth, despite the major challenges of the Covid pandemic.
“We’ve engaged over 1.7 million people through exhibitions, events, learning and community activities, and with the architecture and engineering of our spectacular home, designed by Kengo Kuma. What matters now is how we grow from this point as part of Dundee and Scotland’s creative community, continuing to learn, listen and improve. We are already making more use of the museum’s architecture and plaza, creating a museum for everyone that is full of activity and energy, a place to find joy, explore, reflect, play and learn.
“V&A Dundee is a special place, a unique organisation with a local, national and international outlook rooted in and branching out from Dundee, the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design. As we look to the next five years, we will remain ambitious, deepen our social impact in Dundee, reach out further across Scotland, and do more to champion design from Scotland and around the world.”
Stories from the Building is a permanent new display on the ground floor introducing visitors to the architecture, design, engineering, and construction stories behind the creation of V&A Dundee.
As well as concept sketches, material samples and artefacts from the construction phase, the exhibition includes the original competition model for the building. Interviews with the architects, project managers and engineers are accompanied by a new animation showing the development of the museum’s design and the complexity of its construction.
Click here to find out more about V&A Dundee.
