Touring exhibitions

Many of the Museum's major exhibitions tour to venues both nationally and internationally. Find out what's coming to a venue near you.

Exhibitions available for hire

Many of the Museum's major exhibitions are available for hire to museums and galleries, both nationally and internationally. If you are a venue and would like to contact someone about hiring an exhibition, call Stephen Nicholls on 020 8983 5213 or email s.nicholls@vam.ac.uk.

Please note that the Magic Worlds tour is fully booked. Slots are available for Teddy Bear Story (200 metres squared) from spring 2014, and for War Games and Dolls' Houses (both 400 metres squared) from summer 2015. 

Magic Worlds

Delve into the worlds of fantasy, illusion and enchantment with a spellbinding exhibition exploring how magic has been embraced for hundreds of years. With more than 100 objects from all over the world, the exhibition features costumes, tricks and illusions, film merchandise, optical toys, otherworldly dolls and puppets, and more.

Weston Park Museum, Sheffield, 28 April 2012 – 6 January 2013
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 26 January – 14 April 2013
New Walk Museum, Leicester, 4 May – 29 September 2013
World Museum, Liverpool, 19 October 2013 – 2 March 2014
Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle, 22 March – 22 June 2014

Teddy Bear Story

A major exhibition featuring nearly 100 teddy bears, including many rare and diverse examples of the popular toy, as well as teddies from books, films and television programmes and teddy bear merchandise. Divided into several themes, including German Bears, British Bears and Caring Sharing Bears, the exhibition is drawn entirely from the V&A's outstanding collections.

Museum of Hartlepool, 16 June – 9 September 2012
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, 22 September 2012 – 24 February 2013
Portsmouth City Museum, 16 March – 15 September 2013

War Games

War Games explores the many fascinating, and often surprising, relationships that exist between, on the one hand, war and conflict and, on the other, children's toys and play. This thought-provoking exhibition features toy soldiers and action figures, toy weapons and ‘anti-war’ toys, board and computer games and archive documents, as well as a broad range of powerful visual material, including photographs, packaging and advertising material. The exhibition is multi-sensory, and features many examples of hands-on activities, designed for both family and adult audiences.

Dolls' Houses

The V&A Museum of Childhood holds an internationally significant collection of nearly 100 dolls' houses, some of which have been in the V&A's collection since the early 1920s. The houses span in date from the earliest, the Nuremberg house of 1673, to the Modernist inspired Kaleidoscope house designed by architect Peter Wheelwright and artist Laurie Simmons in 2001. The exhibition takes a chronological approach, giving an overview of tradition and trends in dolls' house fashion, from the 17th century through to the early 21st century.