Welcome

Good morning, and welcome to the CLEAPSS Design Education Symposium, hosted by the V&A. Although I’m sorry not to be with you in person today, I’m delighted that the symposium is taking place here, in a museum that has championed the relationship between art, design and education since its founding.

Across our family of sites, from V&A South Kensington to Young V&A, the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke, V&A East Storehouse and the newly opened V&A East Museum, we see every day the extraordinary role that creativity and design can play in young people’s lives.

The opening of V&A East Storehouse in 2025 and V&A East Museum in April this year marks an important moment for the museum. Together, they chart new ways for people to engage with collections, creativity and making, from the public access offered through the Storehouse Order an Object initiative to galleries shaped in collaboration with young people and local communities. They reflect a belief that museums should not simply display culture, but actively invite participation, curiosity and creative confidence.

At the V&A, we believe design education matters profoundly, because we’re living through a period of enormous technological, environmental and social change. Design thinking gives young people the ability not only to respond to that change, but to shape it. It teaches them to question, to experiment, to collaborate and to learn through making. Importantly, it also teaches resilience: the confidence to test ideas, fail productively, and then try again. These are not simply creative skills. They are essential skills for art and life and work in the 21st century.

Museums have an important role to play in that conversation. Collections can help young people connect ideas across disciplines, linking art, engineering, materials, technology, fashion, architecture and making. They can show students that design is not abstract or distant, but something embedded in everyday life, capable of solving problems and improving the world around us.

That belief sits at the heart of so much of our work with schools and teachers. Through programmes such as the V&A Innovate National Schools Challenge, we work with young people across the country to tackle real-world problems through design thinking and collaboration. Through our teacher programmes, partnerships and participation, we also work closely with educators, supporting the sharing of ideas, practice and expertise across the sector. At Young V&A, children are encouraged to see themselves not simply as visitors, but as designers, thinkers and creators with the power to shape the world around them.

Events like today remind us that at the centre of all of this are learners: the young people whose futures will be shaped by the experiences we create together.

My thanks to Dave, Trudi and everyone at CLEAPSS for bringing everyone together here at the V&A today. Thank you for joining us, and I hope you enjoy the symposium.