The five biggest exhibition design stories of 2020
In a year where many cultural institutions were closed, exhibition designers had to adapt and often bring the museum experience into our own homes. December 18, 2020 12:58 pm
Non-Pavilion, a VR installation at the V&A for last year’s London Design Festival
How would the badly-hit exhibition sector return after the first lockdown? The Design Museum’s headline exhibition, Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers, had been set up before lockdown and its organisers revealed to Design Week how it had been adjusted accordingly. As well as mandatory masks and hand sanitiser stations, bike capacity had been doubled so that people would not have to take public transport and the capacity was halved (the museum had to open late to cover a shortfall in ticket sales).
A rendering of the redeveloped Great Room in the Courtauld Gallery Photo: Nissen Richards Studio
The Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik has donated £10m towards the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, which will help fund the refurbishment of its prestigious gallery located at Somerset House. The Courtauld Gallery is due to open late next year following a three-year refurbishment, housing a suite of six galleries to be named the Blavatnik Fine Rooms that will display highlights from the Courtauld collection.
Guardian reported that Blavatnik also gave $1m to Donald Trump’s inauguration committee in 2016.
The Courtauld’s collection will be completely redisplayed in the revamped gallery. New and transformed areas devoted to the Medieval and Early Renaissance collection, 20th-century art and the Bloomsbury Group of artists will be unveiled as part of the renovation, which costs at least £50m. International loan exhibitions will be held alongsi