“We all need beauty and joy right now”

As Head of Legacy Giving at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Emma McCormack can be fielding enquiries about gifts of priceless paintings one minute and helping support a grieving family the next.

One of the most recent high-profile donations gifted to the V&A was from the estate of the late singer and artist David Bowie, alongside a generous donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group. The archive includes costumes, sounds, lyrics, and sketches and has been curated into a new David Bowie Centre, which opened in September.

---

Emma joined the V&A three years ago, originally as maternity cover, and describes it as “the most amazing place to be”.

“The museum itself is incredible, the collections are just fabulous, millions of beautiful objects put together from all around the world that tell a 5,000 year old story of creativity – from fine art and decorative art to theatre and performance; from furniture and glass to jewellery and ceramics; photography, textiles and fashion – it would be impossible to know every single object, though I do what I can,” she says.

Emma explains that together with her colleagues – a legacies manager and a senior legacies officer – they are part of a bigger Development department, adding: “We have a brilliant Director of Development who, together with the Finance Director, really gets legacies, they know it’s a long game and takes many years of investment before you start seeing results.

“Our V&A Director, Tristram Hunt, is also incredibly supportive. He writes to all our legacy supporters to say thank you once they’ve pledged, he hosts an annual event for us and regularly mentions legacies in his speeches and his blog, all of which are really helpful.

“I’m also part of the V&A’s leadership forum, I get invited to present to the Board and I have a legacy voice at staff meetings to help get the message out to everybody.

“In terms of the arts and cultural arena, I think we are quite unusual in having a full legacy team – it’s only in recent years that more museums and art galleries have begun creating legacy roles as they invest more in the potential of legacy giving.”

Around 90% of legacy gifts come from V&A members and, while cash gifts in Wills are always welcome, many gifts come in the shape of artefacts and objects.

A quirk of the sector is the Acceptance In Lieu (AiL) scheme, which allows those who have a looming Inheritance Tax (IHT) bill to pay the tax by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects and archives to the nation.

The scheme, run by Arts Council England and HMRC, is designed to help ensure such unique cultural objects are allocated to UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives rather than having to be sold or broken up in order to pay the tax bill.

Emma lists a £3.4 million Canaletto painting and a recent collection of Lucien Freud artworks among the many gifts which have been left to the V&A under the scheme.

Another is the priceless Sutherland riviere style diamond necklace comprising of 20 large old brilliant-cut diamonds – linked to the downfall of Marie Antoinette and acquired by the V&A in 2022 from the Sutherland family in lieu of IHT. It is on show as part of the museum’s current Marie Antoinette Style exhibition.

“The story and the necklace’s historical relationship with Marie Antoinette is fascinating, it is such a good example of the importance of the AiL scheme as, without it, we wouldn’t be able to share this fabulous piece,” added Emma.

The scheme aside, Emma says not a day goes by without the offer of a different object coming into her inbox…including an ever-increasing number of teapots and wedding dresses.

“It is always down to our world experts and collection curators to make the decision whether or not to accept a gift; it may be that we already have one such item or we don’t have the space for it.

“Ideally, people would ask us if we want to accept an object as a bequest in advance, as it’s always sad for families if someone has left us a gift and we are unable to take it.

“If we do say we’ll accept it when they’re preparing their will, we also ask for a cash contribution where possible to help us look after the object. One of the biggest challenges we face is that people don’t realise we are a charity – the cost of long-term conservation, curation, digitisation and storage is really expensive, particularly when considering this has to be in perpetuity.

“When people think of the V&A it often doesn’t occur to them that we need financial gifts and that’s a conversation we are trying to change.

“Whilst we prefer unrestricted gifts, we’re also fortunate that the V&A can enable people to direct their gift to an area that reflects their personal interests and life story. So if someone has a passion for fashion say, they can direct their gift to fashion and textiles, or maybe if they’re a potter they can direct their legacy to contemporary ceramics if they wish.

“Our proposition is Your V&A: your legacy – our national collections belong to us all, and someone can create a legacy reflecting the things that have given them joy in their life. With that ownership comes a mirrored sense of responsibility for us to care for our national collections forever, for everyone to enjoy. Instead of people feeling that their legacy will go into a big black hole, at the V&A they can have more control over their gift: they can come and meet the curator, they can see they will always have their name on an object label if their gift is for an acquisition, which is a really nice way for someone’s name to live on in perpetuity. I’m really lucky to be able to do that.”

Emma’s day-to-day role includes legacy administration, pledger acquisition, marketing, events, stewardship and forecasting.

“It is really fulfilling when you take a gift from the initial enquiry and get to know delightful people, stewarding them for years and helping shape and create a meaningful legacy for them,” she adds. “Then, when they pass away, we try to support the family through the legacy administration, and bring their loved one’s plans to life. It is a real privilege to be able to do that whole journey with the family, demonstrate the impact of the legacy, and continue the relationship afterwards.”

A member of the ILM since the start, Emma says its support has been invaluable, especially when studying for the CiCLA exam – on top of coping with a baby, a toddler and the confines of a Covid lockdown.

“One thing I always remember during a revision session was being told ‘don’t worry, you don’t need to learn all this law off by heart – you just need to know it exists and where to find the information you need. As long as you know that, you will be ok’. Given I was on maternity leave, that was the most helpful thing someone could have said at the time!”

She concludes: “Working in the arts is a privilege and it’s the most amazing and joyful vehicle for sustaining social change. At a time when huge funding cuts are being made to the arts, philanthropy plays such a critical role, so it’s amazing for me to play a small part helping fund a sector that I care desperately about.

“The generosity of amazing people that leave legacy gifts and donations is really important. And let’s face it, with everything going on in the world at the moment, we all need joy and beauty right now.”