Design in the Diaspora is developed in partnership with We Are Here Scotland and New Architecture Writers, join us to explore the work of contemporary designers and creatives from diasporic communities across Scotland.

This series brings you a new guest, selected by We Are Here Scotland, paired with a host from New Architecture Writers. Together, they will explore creative practice and career journeys – amplifying and celebrating diverse identities, cultures, and heritages across the creative industries. In January 2023, we were joined by architect and writer Ewa Effiom and multidisciplinary artist Leo Robinson.

Design in the Diaspora: Ewa Effiom and Leo Robinson

The Young People's Collective presents What the Hat?!, a podcast where invited guests share their tactics, strategies, hopes, and dreams while reflecting on the many hats we choose to wear—and those we must—as creatives navigating overlapping political, social, economic, and climate crises. These conversations explore the approaches most essential for sustaining artistic and cultural practices in response to the urgent challenges of our time.

In the pilot episode, co-programmed by a committee of young people at V&A Dundee, invite  Dundee grassroots heavyweights Volk Gallery and City Flower Garden Studio together, to share practical strategies, demystify creative practices and careers, and envision bold, alternative models for the creative sector’s future.

Future episodes will spotlight Dundee’s dynamic community of emerging designers, artists, curators, activists, and organisers who sustain and champion the city’s grassroots cultural ecosystem.

Hosted Bethan Ferrie & Leyla Hussain
Produced by Tana Pennock, Isla McConnachie and Mehr Un Nisa Syed
Art work by Leyla Hussain
Music by Meg Jenkins
Supported by Ryan Mcleod
Edited by Callum Mackie

Young People's Collective Podcast: What the Hat?!

Hear from the artists, designers, architects, writers and curators behind A Fragile Correspondence.

In this first episode, we have gathered just some of the creative team who have been with the project since its very beginning. They will walk us through that journey from Venice to Dundee, sharing the lessons learned when group curating and discuss what they hope the visitor will meet in the gallery. 

From Architecture Fringe, -ism Architectural Magazine and /other we have Andy Summers, Neil McGuire, Alissar Riachi, Kristina (Kicki) Enberg, Alyesha Choudhury and Carl Jonsson. 

Hosted by Svetlana Panova, assistant curator at V&A Dundee. Produced by Troy Nelson and Svetlana Panova in collaboration with A Fragile Correspondence as part of our public programme. 

On display until 25 May 2025, you can find out more about the exhibition here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/exhibitions/scotland-venice-a-fragile-correspondence

Episode One - Making of A Fragile Correspondence

Hear from the artists, designers, architects, writers and curators behind A Fragile Correspondence.

In our second episode, Aaron McCarthy, Frank McElhinney, Becky Little & Tom Morton discuss their work on how environments adapt and show resilience in the face of environmental, social and economic change.

Hosted by Svetlana Panova, assistant curator at V&A Dundee. Produced by Troy Nelson and Svetlana Panova in collaboration with A Fragile Correspondence as part of our public programme.

On display until 25 May 2025, you can find out more about the exhibition here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/exhibitions/scotland-venice-a-fragile-correspondence

Episode Two - Fragile Ecosystems

In this third episode, we are joined by artists Hamshya Rajkumar and Mairi Mcfadyen to discuss their works across Ravenscraig and Abriachan Forest.

Exploring themes of land stewardship, restoration and community, the conversation highlights the importance of cultural and ecological balance, the role of language in understanding landscapes, and the potential of art to foster deeper connections with nature.

Hosted by Svetlana Panova, assistant curator at V&A Dundee. Produced by Troy Nelson and Svetlana Panova in collaboration with A Fragile Correspondence as part of our public programme.

On display until 25 May 2025, you can find out more about the exhibition here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/exhibitions/scotland-venice-a-fragile-correspondence

Episode Three - Stories of Stewardship

Join Monty Don and Kirsty Wark as they discuss hereditary habits, life changing moments and the ways a garden, a place where nature meets design, can shape our lives. 

We also hear from Branklyn Garden’s Kate White, a National Trust For Scotland garden, on how Dorothy & John Renton’s fascination with rare and exotic plants led to a lifelong commitment along the River Tay. 

This podcast series is part of the exhibition public programme for Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, which is open from the 17 May 2025 until 26 January 2026.

To book tickets, or for more information, please visit our website: vam.ac.uk/dundee

Episode 1 – The Love of Gardens with Kirsty Wark and Monty Don

In this fourth and final episode, we invited V&A Dundee’s Young People’s Collective, also known as the YPC, to take over its direction.
 
Led by Mike, Evie, Natalia and Leyla, the YPC question the use of an AI generated image as the exhibition’s main identity. They speak with Neil McGuire (graphic designer and co-curator of AFC) about the image, and with author and journalist Emma Grae about the impact of AI on the Scots language.
 
We also hear two creative writing pieces responding by Timika and Hannah-Linda, created in response to the exhibition. These works are the result of the YPC’s residency programme with students from the University of Dundee.

Content warning: This episode contains strong language and may not be suitable for all listeners.

Credits: produced by Evie, Leyla, Mike & Natalia from YPC
Creative Writing responses from Timika Sukhai and Hannah Linda Hamilton, in residence Feb-March 2025, with thanks to Johanna Lindsay.

Episode Four – AI, Language and Writing with YPC

Dior’s garden-inspired collection of 1947 transformed the world of fashion. To explore that we’re joined by Garden Designer, and Writer Elizabeth Tyler (Vogue, New York Times), and Brigitte Richart, Director and Chief Curator at Musée Christian Dior in Granville, France.
 
From Kim Jones’ work featured in V&A Dundee’s Garden Futures to Musée Dior’s current exhibition Jardins Enchanteurs, we’ll uncover how gardens - beginning with the one at Christian Dior’s childhood home and current location of Musée Dior - have remained central to the fashion house’s identity.
 
This podcast series is part of the exhibition public programme for Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, which is open from the 17 May 2025 until 26 January 2026.
 
To book tickets, or for more information, please visit our website: vam.ac.uk/Dundee
For more information on Jardins Enchanteurs at Musée Christian Dior, please visit musee-dior-granville.com

Episode 2 – Fashion and Dior with Elizabeth Tyler and Brigitte Richart

In this episode we listen to a conversation between two stewards of culture: Leonie Bell, our director here at V&A Dundee, and Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, in Battir, Palestine.  
 

Together they talk through the journey of the seed, and how it has shaped design and the world around us. It bridges both of our current exhibitions Garden Futures and Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine.  
 
**Content warning: This episode contains depictions of genocide and death.**

This podcast series is part of the exhibition public programme for Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, which is open from the 17 May 2025 until 26 January 2026.

To book tickets, or for more information, please visit our website: vam.ac.uk/dundee

Episode 3 – The Resilient Seed with Vivien Sansour & Leonie Bell

We are Scotland’s design museum. Designed for everyone, firing imaginations and sparking curiosity in design across Scotland and around the world.

Episode Two - Fragile Ecosystems

V&A Dundee

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