Design Archives to receive £300,000

Funding was first awarded in 2010 and, following a competitive review process that took place in Summer 2016, the archives will continue to receive £60,000 in each of the next five years.

The review submission demonstrated the significance of the Design Archives collections and the expertise its small team provides to the wider research community.

Professor Catherine Moriarty, Curatorial Director, said: "Welcoming researchers and provoking and producing research is central to every aspect of our work in the Design Archives.”

“We are constantly innovating and leading debate when it comes to matters relating to both stewardship and interpretation. The designers whose archives we look after were idealists and original thinkers and I’d like to think they would be pleased that their legacy is being shared in the dynamic spirit of enquiry we represent.”

The Design Archives hold the most significant body of material relating to post-war design organisations in any British university. Amounting to over 20 separate collections, the archives are an integral part of the research environment of the College of Arts and Humanities and the research profile of the university.

Professor Moriarty said: “The university strategy 2016-21 champions the melding of academic and professional practice that the Design Archives epitomises through the preservation and interpretation of the collections, and celebrates its long term collaborative relationships with international design organisations and the descendants of the designers its collections represent.”

The funding followed a review of university museums and galleries, led by Diane Lees, Director-General of the Imperial War Museum.