London
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has raised £18.5m ($38.48m) towards the £31.5m ($58.7m) needed for its new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries, due to open in November 2009. Of this, £9.75m ($18.18m) is from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Several other major projects have recently been funded. The £4m ($7.45m) Sackler Education Centre will open next year in the former café. The £3.5m ($6.53m) William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery is due to be completed in spring 2008. A major donation has been made by the Headley Trust and Sir Timothy Sainsbury towards the opening in 2009 of the £9m ($16.8m) first phase of the new Ceramics Galleries, which will have upgraded security following two thefts in 2004. The second phase of the Hintze sculpture galleries is to be completed next January.
A new contemporary art and design gallery is to open in November 2007. The V&A Museum of Childhood in east London reopens on 9 December, following a £4.7m ($8.76m) refurbishment.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'V&A steams ahead'