Museum-exhibition services

Tender description

The V&A is seeking to put in place a non-exclusive, non binding framework agreement with a number of Project Management, Cost Consultant and CDM Principal Designer firms and self-employed individuals for the development and delivery of temporary exhibitions and commissions at the V&A, a publicly funded museum. For the purpose of this documentation, providers as such services are referred to as ‘Consultant(s)’. Under this Framework Agreement, Consultants may be appointed to a temporary exhibition or commission to provide any combination of Project Management, Cost Consultancy and CDM Principal Designer services. Between Spring 2017 and Autumn 2020 the V&A will develop and deliver a public programme consisting of approximately 30 headline, temporary exhibitions. Temporary exhibitions at the V&A are designed by externally appointed or in-house design teams (including 3D, graphics, audio-visual and lighting design). The content of temporary exhibitions includes fine art, objects and audio-visual material drawn from museum collections and/or borrowed from institutional and/or private lenders. The nature of temporary exhibitions are that they move very quickly, with a design and build programme typically running for just 12-18 months. On-site build periods range from 2 weeks to 2 months, and are followed by an object installation period, running from 1 week to 1 month. Construction budgets range from approximately 100 000 GBP to 1 000 000 GBP per project depending on the size and complexity of the exhibition in question. The upper end of this range will often include AV hardware, in addition to setworks, showcases, graphic production, lighting, electrics and specific object mounts where they are integral to the build. Under this Framework Agreement, Consultants may be appointed to a temporary exhibition to provide any combination of Project Management, Cost Consultancy and CDM Principal Designer services. CDM Principal Designer Services may also be assigned to the Exhibition Designer. Consultants are required to have extensive experience and expertise in this specialist field or to be able to demonstrate understanding of this field through other relevant appointments. In addition to this, a number of commissions and new initiatives will be delivered by the V&A. These may require Project Management, Cost Consultancy and/or Principal Designer (CDM) services. Requirements for commissions and new initiatives will be determined on a case by case basis.