Strawberry Thief Oor Wullie donated to V&A Dundee
16 December 2016
Strawberry Thief Oor Wullie, the William Morris-inspired sculpture created for V&A Museum of Design Dundee, has been gifted to the museum by publishers DC Thomson.
The company purchased the Oor Wullie sculpture at The ARCHIE Foundation Auction in September this year. The news reveals the identity of one of the last remaining unknown generous donors from the auction, which attracted huge excitement across Dundee.
The Strawberry Thief Oor Wullie that toured Scotland throughout the summer of 2016 will now visit community centres throughout the city, giving local communities the chance to enjoy the popular comic book character again.
Local organisations across the city will have the opportunity to host Oor Strawberry Thief for a month at a time in the run-up to the opening of the new museum in 2018. At each location children and families will be invited to take part in a pop-up museum workshop run by V&A Dundee.
Julie Muir, Young People and Families Producer at V&A Dundee, said: “This is a great opportunity for local communities to design their own pop-up museum in a book and introduce them to some iconic Scottish objects.
“We are really looking forward to bringing these workshops to local communities across Dundee, and giving them the chance to experience the types of activities that will be included in our families programme when we open in 2018.”
Oor Strawberry Thief was brought by DC Thomson for £10,000 at the Oor Wullie Auction. The auction helped to raise over £883,000 for The ARCHIE Foundation’s Tayside Appeal to create a twin theatre suite for Tayside Children’s Hospital.
David Thomson, Director at DC Thomson said, “We’re thrilled to be supporting V&A Dundee. We’re sure Strawberry Thief Oor Wullie will be in huge demand for his new ‘tour’ and will help local communities engage with V&A Dundee ahead of their opening in 2018.”
Abertay University graduate, video game artist and graphic designer Ellen Brown was selected by V&A Dundee through a competition to design the museum’s Oor Wullie sculpture.
She gave the greatly loved comic book character a makeover inspired by the work of William Morris and her time spent working with the V&A’s first Game Designer in Residence Sophia George creating the game Strawberry Thief.
Community centres wishing to host Oor Strawberry Thief during can contact Julie Muir at: julie.muir@vandadundee.org
To host Oor Strawberry Thief for a month, community centres and local groups will need:
A secure indoor space where Oor Strawberry thief can stand for a monthA space suitable to host a workshop
To bid to host Oor Strawberry Thief, local groups are asked to provide:
Three potential workshop datesThe preferred month they would like to host Oor Strawberry ThiefThe reason why they’d like to host Oor Strawberry Thief and a workshop
The pop-up museum workshop uses a pop-up version of V&A Dundee which was created by designers Tessa Asquith-Lamb and Martin Baillie along with smaller kits for children to build their own pop-up museum.
Both the large pop-up book and the design kits feature inspiring items of Scottish design, ranging from the Falkirk Wheel, the world’s only rotating boat lift, to a Jaguar sports car and a traditional Orkney chair.
The pop-up book and kits will be used to spark young people’s interest in design in communities across Dundee, ahead of V&A Dundee opening in 2018.
The pop-up museum project was supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and the William Grant Foundation and is part of Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016.
