Staging Places: UK Design for Performance Display at the V&A Museum

Through March, Central Staff, Students and Alumni will have their work exhibited at the V&A as a part of the Staging Places: UK Design for Performance display. 

Staging Places celebrates the diversity of British performance design across spaces and genres.  This display, in collaboration with the Society of British Theatre Designers, presents costumes, set designs, models, photos, drawings and puppets that reveal the creative process behind designing for performance.

The V&A display follows on from Staging Places’ successful presence at the Prague Quadrennial 2019, the world’s leading international exhibition of scenography and performance design.  Over the course of eleven days, representatives of 79 countries presented, with over 800 artists from around the world, and over 600 performances, workshops and lectures which were attended by nearly 70,000 people.

A large number of Central staff, students and graduates were involved in the Quadrennial, having been selected to exhibit their work.  In particular, Central’s Dr Kathrine Sandys, Dr David Shearing and  Andreas Skourtis were heavily involved with the UK’s national entry for the Prague Quadrennial 2019 – Staging Places– through their work on the committee of the Society of British Theatre Designers. 

Of Central’s involvement Fiona Watt, the Honorary Secretary of the Society of British Theatre Designers and the Curator and Project Leader of ‘Staging Places’, said:

“My collaborative relationship with colleagues at Central goes back to 2009 when I began working with Jessica Bowles on PQ 2011. Since then, I have worked very closely with Andreas Skourtis, Lecturer in Scenography to shape a programme of student curatorship for PQ2015 and PQ2019. Our shared, open approach allowed us to develop the dynamic, contemporary design and curation for the Society of British Theatre Designers’ professional exhibit Staging Places : UK Design Performance for PQ2019 and now at the V&A, supported by Dr David Shearing and Dr Kathy Sandys who have latterly joined the staff at Central and are also active members of the SBTD management team.”

Staging Places celebrates the diversity of performance design and making practices today, to inspire young people to invent it for the future and to acknowledge its impact on a wider sense of place and community.  Exploring themes of regionality and place making, it celebrates what we make and who we make it with in towns, cities, villages, rural and remote communities both within the UK and around the world.

For further information on Staging Places, please visit either the Society for British Theatre Designers website or the dedicated site for Staging Places.

Staging Places: UK Design for Performance will be displayed at the V&A in South Kensington through 29 March 2020; it is open daily from 10.00 – 17.00 and entry is free.