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The appeal of a major exhibition is hard to denounce . The V & A ’ s last major exhibition , Christian Dior : Designer of Dreams sold out in just 19 days . Four years ago , almost half a million people visited the museum ’ s Alexander McQueen : Savage Beauty show . The Warner Bros . Studio Tour outside London generated £ 133M in 2019 pre-lockdowns .
So here we have one area of the property sector that is struggling with footfall and another that is thriving . It ’ s not rocket science . Surely there is a really compelling case for the two to work together .
Bringing theatre to the shopping experience
Museums and galleries already share their collections with other institutions to great effect . In fact , ‘ Dippy ’ the 85ft-long plaster cast of a Diplodocus skeleton travelled on a three-year tour of the UK , visiting other museums and cultural venues such as cathedrals , drawing major crowds .
As an example , when Dippy was placed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery , visitor numbers increased by an extra 140,000 , with these visitors allegedly spending £ 4.2m during their visit . Imagine the potential spending power of these visitors if an exhibition such as Dippy was placed in local shopping district .
In partnering with museums , galleries and visitor attractions to introduce touring exhibitions with supporting retail , developers can deliver that increasingly-important element of the customer journey . Experience .
Whether through interactive exhibitions , immersive VR experiences or talks and masterclasses provided by experts from the partner institute , the raw properties of a major exhibition – whether it ’ s fashion or literature-based , musical or historical – offer immense potential for creative pursuits and active engagement with consumers . It offers a point of difference . An added value and reason to visit a high street beyond the need to purchase basic goods . In essence , it turns shopping into a purposeful destination activity .
Interactive , experiential , curated
So , what does this look like in practice ? Given the amount of vacant and boarded up shops in our town centres there is an abundancy of locations which are , sadly , available at the moment . The chosen sites can be identified according to the ambition of the project and would be tailored to suit the space available . Factors such as enabling ease of customer / visitor flow around the exhibits with ample space for informational story-telling , interactive additions like VR headsets and any set-ups for talks or masterclasses such as origami experts giving lessons in inventive gift-wrapping would have to be considered . The National Gallery in London has , for instance , just announced that its newest touring exhibition , Jan van Huysum Visits , will go on display at a community arts space – formerly a branch of Debenhams – in the seaside town of Great Yarmouth .
What this also allows for is the introduction of aligned retail in other shop units alongside the exhibition , offering consumers the opportunity to take home either a memento of the experience or a design-led product from the institution or attraction ’ s curated collection . This can be anything from plush toys to books and apparel , rotating in content as new touring exhibits are placed on show .
In positioning these exhibits and supporting experiential retail within town centres , cultural partnerships do not detract from the commercial potential of the town centre . They don ’ t impact the availability of full-paid commercial units . They are flexible , agile pop-ups that can grow or reduce in scale depending on the latest exhibition . in partnership with
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