V&A East Museum · London · 2026
Towards a Civic Museum
A large site-specific window that turns a collaborative artistic proposition into glass, lead, paint, engraving and light.
- Project
- Towards a Civic Museum
- Location
- V&A East Museum, London
- Scale
- Approximately 3 × 4.5 metres
- Construction
- Nine stained-glass panels in three steel frames
- Making time
- Approximately 650 hours over eight weeks
- Completed
- 2026
From concept to construction
Tania Bruguera was invited by the museum as an established international artist. She conceived the project with a local East London youth group, generating the ideas and motifs that the window would carry. Those concepts were then passed to me to resolve as a stained-glass design and fabricate at full architectural scale.
My role covered the complete making process: developing the full-scale design, selecting and cutting every piece of coloured glass, painting and firing the imagery, leading and engraving the panels, and making the supporting metal frames. I installed the frames at V&A East and fitted the completed windows with Eleanor Watson.
“The challenge was to condense a substantial set of ideas into a design that could be approved and then made in a very short period — without losing the character of the collaboration.”
The making
Nine panels, made by hand
- 01
Making the steel sub-frames for the nine panels. Drawing and structure
The approved design was enlarged to full size and redrawn across nine templates. Three steel sub-frames divided the architecture into manageable panels.
- 02
Painting one of the window’s figurative details. Glass, paint and fire
Around thirty types of stained glass were selected and cut. Painted elements were built through three kiln firings using enamel paints and silver stain.
- 03
Gilding and engraving the finished leadwork. Lead and engraving
Each panel was leaded, soldered, cemented and polished. The project text was engraved into widened lead lines on both sides so it can be read from inside and outside.
- 04
Installation and the completed window in daylight. Installation
The steel frames were fitted to the building first. Richard and Eleanor Watson then installed the nine finished panels in time for the museum’s opening.
Working against the opening date
The hardest part was getting the project moving. The concepts arrived late and needed to become a coherent, buildable design in time for V&A approval before the new museum opened. That left very little room for the physical making of a window of this scale.
The programme was intense, but the window was completed and installed on schedule. Being part of a major collaborative work for a flagship new London building — and delivering it to the delight of everyone involved — was the most satisfying part of the project.
Credits
- Artist and concept
- Tania Bruguera
- Collaborators
- East London youth group
- Stained-glass design and fabrication
- Richard Paton
- Installation
- Richard Paton with Eleanor Watson
- Commission
- V&A East Museum