Our work

As the inaugural Clive Wainwright Research Fellow, you will have the opportunity to undertake an independent research project on an aspect of British furniture/interiors from the period 1850–1900, focused on the V&A’s Furniture and Woodwork Collection. You will actively engage with V&A staff and contribute new knowledge to V&A catalogue records and documentation through platforms including the museum’s Explore the Collections online database. The Fellowship is for a fixed term period of 6 months (part time) or 3 months (full time). Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK.

The British Galleries (2001) were the V&A’s largest and most ambitious gallery project since WWII, immediately gaining national acclaim and going on to win European Museum of the Year in 2003. This half-day event will present a series of talks and a panel discussion reflecting on the galleries, and how future British Galleries might respond to the many changes in contemporary culture and creative practice since 2001. A wide range of speakers will address topics including gallery narrative and design, technology and community engagement.

The Virgin with the Laughing Child (1460–75), one of the V&A's most celebrated sculptures, was the subject of an interdisciplinary research project in 2022 prompted by longstanding questions surrounding its origins and making. Collaborative research was undertaken by a team composed of curators, conservators and scientists at the V&A and at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF) and Musée du Louvre. The results presented here bring together new technical analysis and art-historical investigation to illuminate the processes employed in the creation of the sculpture, its life as an object, and its relationship to other Renaissance terracotta sculptures. This article first reviews what little is known of the sculpture’s provenance prior to its arrival in the V&A in 1858 and reconsiders the question of its attribution, while also exploring the object’s function and iconography.

Celebrating the City takes readers behind the scenes of early modern urban festivities. Ranging from magnificent coronations to modest courtyard bonfires, it offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary study of festivals in London and Paris. Departing from existing scholarship, it draws on an exceptionally broad array of textual, visual and material sources to show that designing, making and organising were central to how festivals acquired meaning. By foregrounding the processes through which events were created, the book argues that urban festival politics cannot be understood without attention to their material worlds. Its innovative methodology-combining design history with political history-sheds new light on the formation of political publics in early modern European cities. Demonstrating how cities made festivals, and festivals helped make cities, this study significantly advances histories of festivals, political culture and urban life.

From the earliest mosaics in 4th-century BCE Greece and the Byzantine splendour of Hagia Sophia to the celebratory frieze encircling the Royal Albert Hall, and Eduardo Paolozzi's commission for the London Underground, this book by Alice Minter and Simona Valeriani reveals the technical and stylistic evolution of mosaic, and its prominence in political, public and civic spaces. This volume provides both a sweeping history of the craft and fascinating insight into key events. These include the competition judged by Titian, Tintoretto, Schiavone and Veronese in 16th century Venice to choose a mosaicist for St Mark's Basilica and the prominence of mosaic in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

The V&A Research Journal is now available again – and we plan new issues in the forthcoming months.

‘Unearthed’ is a poetry film by Amina Jama. It responds to the V&A’s archive showcasing stereotypical depictions of people of colour throughout time.