V&A Announces All-Night Admissions for Alexander McQueen Blockbuster

Alexander McQueen

Still haven’t found the time to see Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum? Fear not: the popular London museum has announced that it will remain open all night during the exhibition’s two final weekends.

The museum has also released a further 12,000 tickets, as all the pre-bookable tickets have sold out.

“We knew that ‘Savage Beauty’ would be very popular, but the response has been even greater than we imagined,” Martin Roth, director of the V&A, said in a statement. “It is not going on tour to other venues so our aim is to provide as many people as possible with the opportunity to see it by opening through the night for the last two weekends. This will be the first time we have opened the V&A around the clock and we certainly think it is an event worth getting out of bed for,” he added.

Installation view of Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the V&A Museum, London<br>Photo via: The Ministry of Curiosity

Installation view of Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the V&A Museum, London
Photo via: The Ministry of Curiosity

The show, which ends on August 2, has been visited by 345,000 people since it opened in March 14, making it the most visited paid-for exhibition at the V&A in the last decade. The museum has also received 10,000 membership applications during the exhibition, as members can access exhibitions for free (and without queuing).

The previous iteration of “Savage Beauty” was also a massive success when it first opened at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011. The London leg of the exhibition was eagerly awaited, with over 80,000 tickets sold in advance.

Installation view of Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the V&A Museum, London<br>Photo via: The Ministry of Curiosity

Installation view of Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the V&A Museum, London
Photo via: The Ministry of Curiosity

The appeal of blockbuster exhibitions has reached such a level that it is becoming somewhat usual for museums to pull an all-nighter to accommodate demand. When Jeff Koon’s retrospective reached the end of its successful run at the Whitney, the New York museum staged a 36-hour marathon.


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