Elizabeth Esteve-Coll

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 1991

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, Director of one of Britain's most famous museums, the V & A. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her career at the V & A and the controversy she caused within her first year of office. She'll also be recalling how, at 19, she abandoned her university career and married a Spanish sea captain with whom she sailed the world.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 1991, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My cast away this week is the director of one of Britain's most famous museums.
0:35.0	Far from being a dry academic, she's someone who wants the public to participate fully
0:40.0	in the joys of the treasures she protects.
0:43.0	At the age of 19, she abandoned her university studies, married, and went to see with a Spanish
0:48.7	naval officer.
0:50.1	It was during their life together that she educated herself, took a degree and became a university librarian.
0:56.0	When she took over her present job in 1988, she was immediately plunged into the biggest controversy the museum has ever faced. But she
1:04.1	weathered the storm and has just been invited to stay for a second five-year term,
1:08.2	giving her more time to make it a popular place for everyone to visit.
1:13.1	She's the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the VNA, Elizabeth Estevacol.
1:19.4	Elizabeth, your revolution at the VNA was certainly not achieved without pain but was it worth it?
1:24.5	I mean are more people coming? Is it more popular?
1:27.0	Well I've just left the museum to come to the studio leaving great crowds of people in
1:31.6	the museum.
1:32.6	So yes, I think it is worth it because they're discovering the museum for the first time
1:36.6	and saying, oh, it's not full of Victorian furniture, it's marvelous, it's full of jewelry,
1:41.7	it's costume,, its dress.
1:43.1	There's something there for everybody,
1:44.9	and people are rediscovering that,
1:46.4	and that is very exciting.
	...

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