Reflections on Roth, as V&A Director Stands Down After Five Years
Martin Roth, Director of the V&A since September 2011, has announced to staff today he will leave his role in the Autumn after five years in post.
The Museum was recently awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2016, the biggest museum prize in the world, and praised for its ‘exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement across the previous 12 months.'
The Guardian are reporting that the Brexit vote may have had a large part to play in his decision. German-born Roth is reported to have considered the decision for the UK to leave the European Union a 'personal defeat'.
And his international vision can be clearly seen. Under his directorship, he established the new Design, Architecture and Digital Department, and spearheaded new and socially responsive programming, from the Disobedient Objects exhibition to the current Engineering Season. He has also forged many innovative new partnerships, not least with the Venice Biennale, World Economic Forum and International Olympic Committee.
Although criticism from various factions has over the years been levelled at the V&A's seeking of the populist vote, one cannot deny the power of Roth's vision in bringing his cultural vision to the masses. He presided over a succession of critically acclaimed exhibitions, most notably David Bowie is and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, achieving record visitor numbers, which last year reached the highest level in the Museum's 150 year history.
Roth says: “It's been an enormous privilege and tremendously exciting to lead this great museum, with its outstanding staff and collections, and I’m proud to have steered it to new successes and a period of growth and expansion, including new partnerships around the UK and internationally. Our recent accolade as Art Fund Museum of the Year feels like the perfect moment to draw to a close my mission in London and hand over to a new director to take the V&A forward to an exciting future.”
While Nicholas Coleridge, Chairman of the Trustees of the V&A says
“Martin's tenure as Director has been marked by a highly successful period of creativity, expansion and reorganisation of the V&A. He has made a significant contribution to the success of this museum, and the Trustees are immensely grateful for all that he has achieved here. We are now starting the process of looking for someone to take on the role and are fortunate to have an exceptional team in place to lead its activities and help build its future with the new Director.”
Roth intends to devote more time to various international cultural consultancies and plans to spend more time with his wife Harriet and their children, in Berlin and Vancouver.
The V&A’s Board of Trustees will now begin the search to find a new Director.
