Exhibitions Archive
The British Museum, London
The Past from Above
The design of The Past from Above exploited the fan shape of the room and referred to the plan of the adjacent Round Reading Room. A continuous ribbon-like wall created varied spaces and provided a surface for 100 aerial photographs by Georg Gerster.
Objects from the museum’s collection were displayed in specially built cases embedded within the wall. A complex layering of graphics made links between photographs, objects and text.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: sans + baum
- Lighting: DHA Design
- Photograph: Richard H. Smith
Design Museum
Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka :
The Glass Menagerie, 2002
This touring exhibition was commissioned by the Design Museum, London and the National Glass Centre, Sunderland. The exhibits were a collection of model glass jellyfish made for museums in the 19th Century and a number of contemporary art works related to these pieces.
The design consisted of a series of small acrylic showcases linked by curved components to provide stability. The layout was reconfigured to suit the various venues for the exhibition.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: Pony
- Photograph: Graham Simpson
Kensington Palace
Apartment 1a, 2004
This project was for the empty apartment once occupied by Princess Margaret.
The installation consisted of free-standing lightboxes giving the history of the rooms and various former occupants. The intention was to make a clear distinction between the historic interiors and the new design elements.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: sans + baum
- Photograph: Andrew Penketh
Kensington Palace
Working Wardrobe, 2004
This exhibition of some of the Queen’s costumes incorporated a space where visitors could record and display their own relevant memories.
The showcases contained a mixture of costumes, contextual material, graphics and photographs.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: sans + baum
- Photograph: Andrew Penketh
- Lighting Philip Rediough
National Portrait Gallery, London
Self Portraits, 2006
This painting exhibition spanned a number of separate spaces in the gallery: a sequence of rooms and passages usually used for the permanent collection, a shop and entrance lobby and, the largest space, the Wolfson Gallery.
The design unified these diverse spaces by making a series of simple walls of a deep red hue that acted as markers through the exhibition. The final and largest intervention was the arcaded wall shown here.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics and Lighting: The National Portrait Gallery
- Photograph: Graham Simpson
The Royal Academy, London
Joseph Beuys Drawings, 1999
The need to display the complete series of these drawings meant increasing the available hanging space.
The solution lay in siting free-standing lecterns running the length of the galleries. As well as altering the usual route around the rooms the gable-ended lecterns created a counterfoil to the barrel vaults above.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Lighting: DHA Design
Royal Academy, London
Frank Auerbach, 2001
This exhibition occupied half of the main galleries at the Royal Academy (with Rembrandt’s Women also designed by Calum Storrie in the other part). The emphasis here was on sympathetic lighting and wall colours that would compliment the paintings.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: Tim Harvey
- Lighting: DHA Design
- Photograph: Graham Simpson
Royal Academy, London
The Return of the Buddha, 2003
Calum Storrie has designed numerous exhibitions for the Sackler Galleries, mostly consisting of paintings and works on paper. This was the first sculpture exhibition in the space.
The design exploited the axial nature of the rooms while making a dramatic environment where it was possible to view the works in the round.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: Tim Harvey
- Lighting: DHA Design
- Photograph: Graham Simpson
Royal Academy, London
The Unknown Monet, 2007
This design had to take into account a very full picture hang and a mix of paintings and works on paper.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: Tim Harvey
- Lighting: DHA Design
Women's Library, London
Office Politics, 2004
The first of a series of four exhibitions undertaken for the Women’s Library with the graphic designers sans + baum. In each case the design problem was to mediate between the exhibits and the space, giving visitors a ‘way in’ to the exhibition.
In this case the solution consisted of colour coded doorways to orientate visitors, differentiate themed sections and contain the graphic content.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: sans + baum
- Photograph: Andrew Penketh
Women's Library, London
Beauty Queens, 2005
The solution to the problem of the space in this exhibition lay in wrapping the central room in a colourful striped wall. This device served as a means of orientation and as a way to organise the exhibition’s themes.
- Exhibition Design: Calum Storrie
- Graphics: sans + baum
- Photograph: Andrew Penketh

Women’s Library
Sinners, Scroungers, Saints?
2007
This exhibition explored the way that society has treated single mothers over the last century.
The lightboxes were used to show dry statistics in a way that would engage the viewers who were also invited to share their personal experiences on the adjacent wall.
- Exhibition design: Calum Storrie 2007
- Graphic design: Lucienne Roberts +
- Photograph: David Shaw
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