Calum Storrie
Calum Storrie graduated in architecture from Dundee University in 1980. He worked with various London-based practices specialising in museum and exhibition design before joining the British Museum Design Office in 1990. In the following eight years he worked on projects ranging from small exhibitions of prints and drawings to large scale re-displays of the permanent collection.
During this time he also embarked on a series of collaborations in the British Museum with artists such as Terry Smith, Richard Wentworth, Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska.
In 1998 he set up in private practice to work on museum and cultural projects. Since then he has developed close working relationships with clients who value his personal attention to their exhibitions. He has a wide network of disciplines and professional knowledge to draw on and has worked closely with graphic designers, lighting designers, AV consultants, mount makers and other specialists in the museum field.
See Exhibition Design by Calum StorrieCalum has completed more than 20 exhibitions at the Royal Academy and has been responsible for 10 exhibitions and permanent gallery projects at the National Portrait Gallery. In 2005 Calum Storrie Ltd was formed.
Calum has written extensively on museums and has taught at Kingston University, London Metropolitan University, the University of the Arts London, the University of Winchester, and for the British Council in India.
The Delirious Museum
In 2006 Calum Storrie's book ‘The Delirious Museum’ was published.
The Delirious Museum presents an original view of the museum, proposing that it is, or should be, both a repository of the artefacts of the past and a continuation of the city street of the present.
Charles Saumarez-Smith, Secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts, London said:
“The Delirious Museum brilliantly explores the museum as a place of disorder, a space for wandering and dreaming, from Baudelaire to the surrealists, from the situationists to the Centre Pompidou, from Carlo Scarpa to Sir John Soane. It is a wunderkammer of a book, an exploration of sites and scenes relating architecture to memory throughout the world.”
The Delirious Museum is available on the Amazon website.
Calum Storrie: Profiles
Design Week
John Stone, 23 February 2006
“Scotsman Calum Storrie's art exhibition designs are informed by his architectural background, and he prefers his work to stay low key. The street and the way we walk through cities are Storrie’s inspiration for both the book [The Delirious Museum] and his exhibition design. John Stone asks about his new book and latest project set to open in London.”
‘I really like the idea of a journey through a city that is full of surprises, dead ends and diversions. This is what undermines the sense of a ‘closed narrative’ that many exhibitions aspire to, and enhances the visitor’s experience.’
The full interview is available to subscribers of Design Week.
Museum Practice: The invisible designer
“Calum Storrie has designed many exhibitions at the Royal Academy, including Joseph Beuys, Apocalypse: Beauty and Horror in Contemporary Art, and the Return of the Buddha. He has worked with the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Design Museum. Before becoming an independent designer he worked at the British Museum. Javier Pes talks to him about his work where only the subtlest of touches is needed and when knowing when not to design is as important as designing...”
The Independent: A case of transparent charm
Thomas Sutcliffe, 4 November 2000
“... Storrie himself is refreshingly unpretentious about ‘the hang’, an activity which some curators imbue with an almost shamanistic air of mystery. He’s even an ideological cheerleader for the simple virtues of the glass box, a form of cultural storage that it has long been fashionable to despise.”
The full profile is available on the Independent's website. Strangely enough, the first paragraph of the article appears twice.