Designing lives and economic growth

A world class museum established 200 years ago to promote design and innovation as Britain built on the first industrial revolution is set for the AI age, its director told a large audience last week.

Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, emphasised his organisation’s founding role as “a museum for manufacturers, to illustrate the application of art to some purpose of utility, and to afford instruction and assistance to manufacturers, designers, students and the public”.

He was delivering the annual Portal Trust Lecture at Bayes Business School.

During his lecture, the broadcaster, author, academic and former shadow education secretary, noted the organisations’ shared beliefs.

An Enlightenment for all

He said: “The Portal Trust and the V&A have for many decades walked parallel paths, both born out of a deep conviction that education, particularly creative education, is the key to social mobility, civic vitality and individual flourishing. Both were founded to widen opportunity and to nurture potential, especially amongst those who might otherwise be excluded from it. Today, both continue to serve the same mission: to make the life of the imagination, the ability to create, to think differently and to see beauty and meaning in the world, something that belongs to everyone and not the privileged few.”

Emphasising the enduring relevance of that principle, he lamented the diminishing presence of arts and design in the national curriculum and in the higher education sector.

“The value of creativity and design education was endorsed by the 2019 Durham Commission. Through engaging in opportunities for creative learning, grounded in subject knowledge and understanding, students’ creative capacity will be nurtured and their personal, social and academic development greatly enriched. With these advantages, our young people enter society and the world of work able to think and work creatively across disciplines and sectors and champion the UK as a leader in creativity.”

That approach is vital to future economic growth, he said, with employers demanding creativity, analytical thinking and flexibility.

“The fourth industrial revolution, with quantum computing AI, demands the unique attributes of human creativity and craft - yet we are systematically stripping those skills from the education system.”

Exhorting the audience to act, he concluded: “In the face of populism and chauvinism, museums have the knowledge and capacity to explain complex and challenging pasts. However, throughout this process of education, we have a collective role to play, ensuring art and design’s place in the curriculum...and by supporting the broader ecosystem of creativity - from regional museums to the art college shows and craft and design fairs.

"The V&A was founded to meet that challenge, and with allies like the Portal Trust, we're working to meet it again, because when we teach creativity, we don't just train artists or designers, we nurture citizens: people who can think critically, act imaginatively and see the world not as it is, but as it might be.”

Sir Anthony Finkelstein, President of City St George’s, University of London, agreed with Dr Hunt’s arguments around the decline of arts and design education, noting the pressures on the university when arts and creative industries “are an essential part of our mission”.

The ability to "appreciate arts and design and to think creatively and critically” are important across the professions served by the university, he said – including  business, medicine, politics, technology and law.

Sir Anthony concluded by paying tribute to the Portal Trust, noting the work the organisations do together – including a mentoring programme linking Bayes academics and students with young people from deprived backgrounds in east London.