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V&A marks 150 years of inspiration
By Louise Jury 26.06.07
Album contributor Vivienne Westwood
The Victoria and Albert Museum is as great an inspiration to Britain's artists and designers as it was when Henry Cole founded it 150 years ago, a new report claimed today.
The report, by John Holden of think tank Demos, has been published to celebrate this anniversary and, to support the claim, more than 150 designers and artists - including Sir Terence Conran, Vivienne Westwood and Issey Miyake - have contributed to an album celebrating how the V&A, which is throwing a party this evening to mark the event, has inspired them.
The museum was founded to educate working people and inspire British designers as Henry Cole felt a successful economy depended on good design.
Today's report, Useful and Suggestive: Creative Industries and the V& A, found that t he museum is a major source of images for graphic designers, advertising agencies and publishers while its publications division provides popular and scholarly works related to the creative industries.
Its collections span 2,000 years of art from all over the world. In the celebratory album, Norman Foster, the architect, said: "What better place could there be to seek inspiration or simply idle away an afternoon?"
