The popularity of Scotland’s first-ever dedicated design museum reflects a new excitement and a new chapter in the cultural economy of Dundee. “The city is buzzing, its alive, its profile is bigger than it’s ever been. Our museums can only benefit from that,” says Gill Poulter, Heritage & Exhibitions Director at Verdant Works.

The V&A Dundee was made possible thanks to players of the National Lottery and with a total investment of £31.8million from HLF in the city, there are many more projects, large and small, that have blossomed to create this thriving cultural destination – recently named in the Lonely Planet’s Top Ten Cities in Europe 2018.

[quote=Gill Poulter, Heritage & Exhibitions at Verdant Works] “The city is buzzing, its alive, its profile is bigger than it’s ever been."[/quote]

Ali Gellatly, Education Officer at RRS Discovery, said: “The National Lottery funding has been a huge, huge boon for Dundee. It’s allowed us to do things which we just wouldn’t have been able to do on our own.”

Buying a National Lottery ticket is where it starts and the people who have done that have raised over £38bn for good causes since 1994 – funding amazing arts, screen, creative industries, sport, heritage and community projects in every corner of the UK.

Funding projects all over Dundee

In Dundee, National Lottery players have helped:

• Restore the historic ship RRS Discovery
• Create amazing new exhibition space to showcase the city’s industrial heritage at Verdant Works
• Save Dundee’s art gallery, the McManus Galleries
• Transform the popular Baxter Park
• Conserve Scottish historic music scores collected by Sir Jimmy Shand

Cllr John Alexander, Leader of Dundee City Council, said: “I want to thank National Lottery players who have provided such as boost to my city. We can’t thank HLF enough for what they have done in transforming, not only the built environment of the city, but actually the vision that we have going forward.”