Call it the new special relationship. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, have signed an agreement for Smithsonian to organise exhibitions at the 2012 Olympics site in the British capital, where V&A will occupy part of a huge campus.
The memorandum of understanding represents a landmark collaboration between the two major museums, even though Smithsonian’s role has diminished slightly from an initial plan to build its own separate galleries.
“This would not be a ‘Smithsonian outpost in London’,” says Smithsonian’s secretary David Skorton. Yet the accord is the first time that works from the sprawling ensemble of 19 museums will be on view on a permanent basis in galleries outside the United States.
Those galleries will be in the new V&A East, part of a cultural district planned for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, where the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were held. The total budget for the Olympicopolis project is £850 million (Dh4.6 billion); it is expected to open in 2021 or 2022.
The museums at the Smithsonian – founded in 1846 by an English philanthropist who never visited America – offers V&A a chance to bring everything from aerospace technology and fossils to Hollywood memorabilia to a London audience.
Its collections number “28 to 30 million visits a year”, according to Smithsonian’s spokesperson Linda St Thomas, citing an enviable number for any other museum.
For years, art museums have planned satellite branches, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, or installed galleries within other museums.
An example is the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, which established a successful annex in Amsterdam and abandoned a struggling outpost in a Las Vegas casino. It has announced that it will provide objects from its collections to a US$43m five-storey structure in Barcelona projected to open in 2019 in that city’s port area.
Its partners, Spanish and Russian private investors, anticipate a half-million visitors annually. The Hermitage is also building galleries in Moscow. As far back as 1999, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston established galleries in Nagoya, Japan, where art-hungry locals queued to see impressionist paintings.
The Smithsonian, whose mandate extends beyond fine art, comes late to the growing trend of broad international exchanges of objects and talent, even though its global scholarly exchanges have been in place for decades.
The V&A initiated discussions in 2015, says St Thomas. No other museum ever approached Smithsonian before about collaborating on this scale. The two museums began discussions in 2015 at V&A’s request, says St Thomas. No other museum ever approached the Smithsonian before about collaborating on this scale.
“The V&A will lease the space, and take care of the annual operating costs,” she says, outlining the division of labour involved, “and the Smithsonian will do private fund-raising for exhibitions, programmes and whatever we do, collaboratively with the V&A or on our own”.
In the US, the Smithsonian gets most of its budget from the US Congress. Admission to its galleries – except at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York – is free.
St Thomas could not confirm whether that would be the case in London in its galleries at the V&A, although it seems unlikely, given the constant mention of the site’s role in economic development.
Free or not, a major portion of the galleries’ visitors could turn out to be American tourists, a mainstay of the London cultural economy and the same public for the Smithsonian museums in Washington.
The potential partnership makes sense for V&A, said Larry Warsh, founder of the now-defunct American magazine Museums, and an adviser to museums on international collaborations. “It’s huge,” he said. “The Smithsonian is an amazing vault – a conceptual vault and a real vault of millions of objects – which enables any collaborating institution to assemble exhibitions for the next 20 years.”
The deal isn’t simply a conduit to send inventory from Washington to London, says St Thomas. The parties “are not sure how artefact-rich it will be”, she says, “maybe it will involve innovation and technology”.
The Smithsonian’s programmes in history and popular culture is known for attracting a broad public from outside existing audiences for art museums – practising outreach or going down-market, depending how you look at it.
Yet words of caution came from Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “As museum collections grow, administrators naturally seek new venues and audiences for the objects in their care,” says Tinterow.
“But the cost of maintaining facilities, transporting and mounting exhibitions continues to grow at a rate that exceeds the revenue potential of most venues, so new outlets come with new fund-raising obligations. Absent government subsidies or guaranteed funders, satellite museums have had a difficult time finding sustainable business plans.”
Asked if the object-rich Smithsonian had been approached by other institutions outside the US once the London deal was announced, St Thomas says, “not yet”.
artslife@thenational.ae
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
When is VAR used?
• Goals
• Penalty decisions
• Direct red-card incidents
• Mistaken identity
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:
Juventus 1 Ajax 2
Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.
6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.
6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.
The years Ramadan fell in May
The years Ramadan fell in May
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16 second leg
Paris Saint-Germain (1) v Borussia Dortmund (2)
Kick-off: Midnight, Thursday, March 12
Stadium: Parc des Princes
Live: On beIN Sports HD
The%20Specs%20
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BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Bangladesh tour of Pakistan
January 24 – First T20, Lahore
January 25 – Second T20, Lahore
January 27 – Third T20, Lahore
February 7-11 – First Test, Rawalpindi
April 3 – One-off ODI, Karachi
April 5-9 – Second Test, Karachi
Results
2.30pm: Expo 2020 Dubai – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: Barakka, Ray Dawson (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)
3.05pm: Now Or Never – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: One Idea, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.40pm: This Is Our Time – Handicap (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Perfect Balance, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar
4.15pm: Visit Expo 2020 – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Kaheall, Richard Mullen, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.50pm: The World In One Place – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1.900m; Winner: Castlebar, Adrie de Vries, Helal Al Alawi
5.25pm: Vision – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Shanty Star, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly
6pm: Al Wasl Plaza – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Jadwal, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
'Brazen'
Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Red Star Belgrade v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight (Thursday), UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Chicago from Dh5,215 return including taxes.
The hotels
Recommended hotels include the Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, located in an iconic skyscraper complete with a 1929 Olympic-size swimming pool from US$299 (Dh1,100) per night including taxes, and the Omni Chicago Hotel, an excellent value downtown address with elegant art deco furnishings and an excellent in-house restaurant. Rooms from US$239 (Dh877) per night including taxes.
RESULTS
5pm: Sweihan – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m
Winner: Shamakh, Fernando Jara (jockey), Jean-Claude Picout (trainer)
5.30pm: Al Shamkha – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: Daad, Dane O’Neill, Jaber Bittar
6pm: Shakbout City – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: AF Ghayyar, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: Gold Silver, Sandro Paiva, Ibrahim Aseel
7pm: Masdar City – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Musannef, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Khalifa City – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Ranchero, Patrick Cosgrave, Bhupat Seemar
The biog
Age: 30
Position: Senior lab superintendent at Emirates Global Aluminium
Education: Bachelor of science in chemical engineering, post graduate degree in light metal reduction technology
Favourite part of job: The challenge, because it is challenging
Favourite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Gandi
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
THE SPECS – Honda CR-V Touring AWD
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder
Power: 184hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 244Nm at 3,900rpm
Transmission: Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)
0-100kmh in 9.4 seconds
Top speed: 202kmh
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
Price: From Dh122,900
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
World Test Championship table
1 India 71 per cent
2 New Zealand 70 per cent
3 Australia 69.2 per cent
4 England 64.1 per cent
5 Pakistan 43.3 per cent
6 West Indies 33.3 per cent
7 South Africa 30 per cent
8 Sri Lanka 16.7 per cent
9 Bangladesh 0
FIGHT%20CARD
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Dunbar
Edward St Aubyn
Hogarth
Rooney's club record
At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17
At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253
THE%20FLASH
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Andy%20Muschietti%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sasha%20Calle%2C%20Ben%20Affleck%2C%20Ezra%20Miller%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
