It has been a rollercoaster of a ride in its short life for the V&A’s only outpost outside London.
Scotland’s design museum in Dundee is on the threshold of its fifth birthday with plenty of brickbats and bouquets from previous years to reflect on.
With celebrations in the air, the waterfront landmark seems to be finding its feet and stating its purpose for both locals and visitors at a time when arts funding has never been so tight.
There is a sense of life and activity and community in the place that seemed absent in its infancy.
The current exhibition Tartan is enjoying enormous success having hit on a Scottish theme that offers something for everyone.
More importantly, this is its first home-grown show. Another candle on the cake.
Kuma’s wonderful design
The first show in 2018 in the enviably large exhibition space was an interesting touring show on Ocean Liners but surely the opening was the time to tell the public the story of the building, its construction and its Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
Now at last there is to be a permanent show about the building itself. I should think so too. The public must be told the circular white marks on the floor tiles and stairs are not where someone put a can of white gloss down.
I have heard several remarks to this effect on my visits.
Au contraire, it is in fact Kilkenny marble, a dark carboniferous limestone that contains fossils of brachiopods, gastropods, crinoids and corals, to name but a few.
I love Kengo Kuma’s behemoth, inspired he said by the cliffs of North-East Scotland with its ship-like prow stretching into the Tay. It would be wonderful to arrive by boat.
The exterior of the building has certainly divided opinion – and the interior to a lesser extent.
I have to admit to shock on first entering the place, which seemed to be one void after another.
Lovely design in stone, wood and glass but there was an emptiness.
It had a huge café back then, answering the call for scones, plain and fruit, that no-one had made.
Critics dubbed the V&A Dundee “a multi-million café” and they had a point.
They should go back now, the area has been re-configured with an expanded shop and some seating.
Live music is key
Indeed, all the naysayers should go back. It is sad to see locals on TV saying the V&A is not for them and that they have never been there.
Kuma said he wanted the place to be “a living room for the city” but at first it felt like one where the furniture had been pushed back before the music started and the sausage rolls arrived.
Now there is artwork on the walls upstairs and lots of design activities taking place on landings, from weaving to sketching.
Every so often there are designer fairs where they fill both floors of the building with their stalls.
It has also become a venue for live music. As a Dundee resident, I feel these things are a must for drawing us back to the place.
It is different for a tourist who will come to see the big exhibition and the permanent Scottish collection; the latter needs a bit of freshening up for us locals.
V&A Dundee went through the terrible twos but then we all did thanks to Covid.
Current director Leonie Bell was appointed “to lead the awakening from lockdown” and she and her team have nurtured a healthy five-year-old that knows it still has much to learn.
Joy Watters is a former Courier journalist who specialises in arts and culture.
Conversation