The Gordon Russell Design Museum celebrates the work of the renowned twentieth century furniture designer, Sir Gordon Russell (1892-1980), and that of his company, which operated for over sixty years in Broadway, Worcestershire. The Museum is located in the original Grade II listed drawing office and workshop and was opened by Sir Terence Conran in April 2008.
The development was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and private sponsors and the Museum is run by volunteers, many of whom are ex-employees and very keen to share their knowledge and expertise with designers and makers of the future. In 2010 additional heritage Lottery funding enabled an Education Volunteer Group to be set up to develop new resources and a workshop for secondary design and technology pupils. The volunteers are from the company and from primary, secondary and higher education backgrounds.
A visit to the Museum will include:
? an introduction to Gordon Russell and his company?s work
? a highlight tour of the collection of furniture and an opportunity to examine the work, take photographs and make sketches
? access to some of the thousand Gordon Russell design sketches held in the archive
? an opportunity to ask ex-Gordon Russell employees about their designing and manufacturing experiences. Ideally a visit will last around an hour and a half, with some time for self-directed study and observation.
The Museum is a small but very comfortable environment to explore elements of twentieth century design, from Arts & Crafts to Post-Modernism. The volunteer team are also able to provide outreach sessions in schools within a reasonable travelling distance of the Museum to share our ?museum in a box? interactive resources. A Teachers? Resource Pack with a wealth of information about the Museum collection and archive can be downloaded from here. School visits must be booked by direct contact.