Free images to use. Credit: Julie Howden

V&A Dundee Director Leonie Bell will give the prestigious 2025 Mapstone Lecture at the University of Dundee on Thursday 13 March, discussing her creative leadership journey and the ways design can transform lives, communities and places.

The annual Mapstone Lecture celebrates the legacy of Elisabeth Mapstone, an outstanding researcher and activist in social work and social policy and the first female Professor at University of Dundee.

Scheduled to follow International Women's Day, it is also an opportunity to honour the pioneering work that women continue to perform across diverse areas of endeavour.

Elisabeth Mapstone was appointed to the role of Professor of Policy Science and Social Policy in 1975, the same year that Leonie Bell was born in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

Leonie left the region in 1993, to pursue a career in culture and creative leadership. In this talk Leonie will cover her journey from leaving Dundee to returning to the city in 2020 to undertake her dream job of leading V&A Dundee.

The lecture is free and open to everyone. Tickets are available online.

Leonie Bell, Director of V&A Dundee, said: “I feel very honoured to be invited to give the 2025 Mapstone Lecture, where I will talk both about the fundamental, life-changing importance of design and what I’ve learned through my own journey to become the leader of a national cultural organisation that was founded by partners including the University of Dundee.

“I was born in Dundee and grew up in Newport-on-Tay, and it is a very great privilege to have come full circle in my life and career to be back in Dundee, the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design, as Director of Scotland’s design museum.

“While V&A Dundee was being planned and built, I watched with huge interest as the site developed and the plans for a new design museum took shape. Every day, I feel lucky to be working with partners, the team and with visitors as we listen, learn and keep growing our ambition and deepening our impact. We have welcomed huge numbers of visitors, but it is still a very young museum and one that will continue to develop in the years to come.”

Trish McCulloch, Professor of Social Work and Deputy Dean at the University of Dundee’s School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, said: “We are delighted to welcome Leonie Bell to deliver this year's Mapstone Lecture.

“Having grown up near the city and now as Director of V&A Dundee, Leonie is ideally placed to share insights from her personal and leadership journey and will inspire our audience to consider the possibilities of good design in individual and social change.”

Leonie has held a range of leadership roles in Scotland's culture sector since starting out as part of the exhibitions team that delivered Glasgow 1999: UK City of Architecture and Design. She was Programme Director at The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, and then led on the development of the Scotland-wide cultural programme for London 2012 and Glasgow 2014.

Leonie has also held several funding, strategy and policy leadership posts as Director of Arts & Engagement at Creative Scotland, Head of Culture Strategy & Engagement at the Scottish Government, and she led on Paisley’s cultural regeneration before becoming V&A Dundee's Director in 2020.

Leonie is an Honorary Professor of Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee, a Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow, a Design Economy Ambassador with the UK Design Council, a member of the Bonnetmakers Craft, one of the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee, a member of the Policy Evidence Centre for Creative Industries Advisory Board and a trustee of the Edinburgh International Festival.

The 2025 Mapstone Lecture, Design Dreams in Dundee: A Creative Leadership Journey, will take place at 4pm on Thursday 13 March in the University of Dundee’s Dalhousie Building. Tickets are available online.