AN arts "visionary" who was one of the driving forces behind the plan to build the £80million V&A Museum in Dundee will be commemorated in the final building, its director has declared.

 

Moira Gemmill, 55, was killed when cycling to work in London, and died on the scene after being struck by a tipper lorry near Lambeth Bridge.

As a director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), she played a key role in modernising the museum in London but was also a project leader for the building of the new museum on Dundee's waterfront.

Ms Gemmill, originally from Kintyre, who trained at the Glasgow School of Art, and who worked for many years at Aberdeen Art Gallery, had recently joined the Royal Collection Trust as director of capital programmes, a brief that included Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

On Thursday morning, she was cycling from her home in Kennington to her work at St James's Palace when she was involved in the collision with a lorry.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the tipper lorry stopped at the scene but was not arrested.

Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, which is due to open in 2017, said: "This is awful and absolutely devastating news.

"We all knew her very well, we had all worked with her here at V&A Dundee - she had been the driving force behind it, and with her position at the museum the Dundee project was very much her responsibility.

"She contributed so much to the V&A and the Dundee project, this is a terrible loss.

"She had such a belief in the importance of design in people's lives.

"Moira was such a part of V&A Dundee we will find a way to commemorate her in the final design."

Ms Gemmill graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1981 with an honours degree in Art and Design.

She worked in publishing before becoming head of exhibitions at the Aberdeen Gallery and Museums between 1988 and 1998 before becoming Head of Design and Exhibitions at the Museum of London for three years.

Ms Gemmill worked at the V&A for 13 years, joining initially in 2002 as Head of Design and in 2005 she was appointed the V&A's Director of Projects and Design.

The revamp of the South Kensington museum, for which she played a key role, led to a significant increase in annual visitor numbers, from 900,000 to 2.9m.

She joined the Royal Collection Trust as director of capital programmes in February.

Sir Mark Jones, the former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, said she was "a really exceptional person" and it was "a terrible loss".

Martin Roth, director of the V&A, said: "We are devastated to hear of the tragic death of our much-loved and respected colleague of many years, Moira Gemmill.

"I cannot overstate Moira's remarkable contribution in making the V&A the global leader in museum design that it is today.

"She will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with her family at this very sad time."

Ms Gemmill had also been a judge for the Architectural Review's (AR) Women in Architecture Awards since their launch in 2011.

AR editor Christine Murray said: "The profession has lost one of its great patrons and champions."

Moira Gemmill was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and served as a judge for the Architectural Review's Women in Architecture Awards from 2011.

Ms Gemmill's brother Andrew, 59, said: "She was a wonderful, inspirational woman.

"She was absolutely extraordinary but in a very modest way.

"She lived a modest life. She was very excited about her new post, we all were."