Ruskin and the Idea of the Museum

Tristram Hunt, the current director of the V&A, is a British historian, broadcast journalist, and former Labour Party politician who served as a member of Parliament from 2010 to 2017. Hunt explores the ideas and values represented by art and museums in Ruskin’s writings, the critic’s troubled relationship with the South Kensington Museum’s founding director, Sir Henry Cole, and reflects on Ruskin’s relevance for museums in the twenty-first century.

This biennial lecture was named in honor of the Center’s founder, Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929).