‘I believe design is a mirror to society. Objects are evidence of social, political, technological and economic change. Beyond their material value, they show us what design can do and reveal truths about how we live today and how we might live tomorrow.’

About

Corinna Gardner is Senior Curator of Design and Digital at the V&A. Corinna leads the museum’s Rapid Response Collecting programme and her research focuses on product and digital design.

Current projects include a new gallery for 20th and 21st century design at the V&A in London and the development and delivery of a digital design collecting strategy for the museum. Corinna is also working towards an exhibition about the problem and promise of plastic in today’s world opening at the Vitra Design Museum and travelling to V&A Dundee in autumn 2022.

In 2015, Corinna co-curated All of This Belongs to You, an exhibition about the design of public life and the role institutions the 21st century.

Before joining the V&A, Corinna worked at the Barbican Art Gallery on exhibitions, including OMA: Progress, Bauhaus: Art as Life, Ron Arad: Restless, Random International’s Rain Room and Cory Arcangel’s Beat the Champ.

Selected projects, talks and media

 
 
 
 
 
 

2021

Talk: Collecting in the Contemporary Moment, Franz Meyer Museum, Mexico Cirty

Talk: Design 1900—Now, Furniture History Society 45th Annual Symposium, co-convenor, London

Talk: Refufee Heritage in conversation with DAAR - Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, Mosaic Rooms, London

Talk: Born-digital Collections and Design Records, ICAM & The New Institute

Review: V&A museum’s new 20th and 21st Century gallery is refitted for the social justice era, The Guardian

Review: New V&A gallery explores contemporary history through design, Wallpaper*

Review: First Look: V&A’s new gallery brings history of design to life, Design Week

Talk: Redefining Narratives, People: A Global Dialogue on Museums and Their Publics, The MET

 

2020

Talk: Rapid Response, Social Justice and Museums: Now, New Mexico Museums Association Conference

Press: Here’s how curator Corinna Gardner keeps one of the world’s great museums relevant, Fast Company

Press: Museums are urgently collecting homemade masks and other Ephemera from the Coronavirus Pandemic, artnet News

Press: Museums in the time of COVID-19, Disegno

Press: How are museums collecting during the corona virus lockdown? Museums Journal

Talk: Digital Collecting in Museums, National Museums Scotland

Press: Design is a lens to understand our world, Design Week

 

2019

Talk: The Political Role of Cultural Institutions, Access Culture Annual Conference, Lisbon, 2019

Press: Extinction Rebellion objects acquired for our collections, V&A

Radio: Extinction Rebellion at the V&A, BBC Front Row

TV: Secrets of the Museum, BBC2

Jury: The Design Prize, designboom and Abitare

 

2018

Essay: iPhone, The Future Starts Here, V&A exhibition catalogue

Opinion: Why is the V&A collecting Lego, Vote Leave leaflets and Xbox controllers?, The Guardian

Keynote: Rapid Response Collecting at the V&A, Irish Museums Association Annual Conference

Press: How museums embraced digital art, Financial Times

Advisory Board: State of Fashion: Searching for a New Luxury, Arnhem

 

2017

Press: The Victoria and Albert Gains a Pussyhat, The New Yorker

 
 

2015

Talk: Renew Your Vows: rebuilding the civic contract between museums and the public, MA Annual Conference

Review: All of This Belongs to You, Financial Times

Jury: BA Graphic Design, ArtEZ Academie for Art & Design, Arnhem

Review: V&A Returns to it Civic-Minded Roots, The New York Times

Talk: Consequences of Design, Microsoft Social Computing Symposium

 

2014

Jury: MA Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship, ECAL/Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne

Jury: The Icon Awards, Icon Magazine