Middlesex University

What began life as a collection donated to Hornsey College of Art in 1965, has been added to and converted into a dedicated design museum, MoDA. It is reopening at a purpose- built site at the university’s Cat Hill campus in north London on 17 October. Hornsey became part of the new Middlesex Polytechnic, now Middlesex University, and the collection in question is the Silver Studio Collection of textile designs.

MoDA will house six permanent collections at the time of its reopening, with other temporary ones planned throughout the year. The leaning is towards home furnishings and textiles from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

MoDA will house the 40 000 fabric, wallpaper, carpet and textile designs of Arthur Silver’s studio, famed for its Art Nouveau styling. The collection also includes a range of print material from the period and an extensive design library.

The typography and exhibition works of the Charles Hasler Collection feature, too, although they have not yet been catalogued. Hasler, a proponent of Victorian typography in the 1920s and 1930s, also curated exhibitions for the Ministry of Information from 1942 to 1951. The Peggy Angus Archive, also still to be completely catalogued, holds hand-printed wallpaper designs and tiles from the 1950s and 1960s.

The Museum will also house the Domestic Design Collection of design publications from 1850 to 1960, as well as the Sir JM Richards Library, dedicated to the architectural theorist and editor of the Architectural Review.

While the Silver and the Domestic collections are already catalogued, available on the website, MoDA aims to extend its picture loaning services after its October opening.

Contact: Elaine English, licensing research manager 020 8411 5207 www.moda.mdx.ac.uk