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A Cheeky Look at Butts in Art

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The BootyFull Body Tour at the V&A

Posted on 4th April, 2023

On Friday 31 March 2023, the V&A hosted a Friday Late to celebrate their exhibition, Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance, and they asked the Museum Bums team to lead a tour to celebrate the beautiful bodies and bootylicious bums on display. The evening was themed around our relationships with our bodies, to reflect Donatello’s pioneering techniques and ability to invoke exquisite emotions in his subjects; from grief to joy.

Here at Museum Bums HQ we take bottoms seriously, despite them often being so overlooked in art. A bum can tell as us much about an artwork as a face, if you know what to look for. And so with this in mind, we carefully devised a cracking tour to encourage visitors to get in touch with themselves, and the works on display – including a few that are featured in the forthcoming Museum Bums book. We wanted it to be more than just a tour, and so we set about striking poses, creating soundscapes, engaging our senses and even dressing up and making casts with our audience.

And what an audience it was!

Over two tours we introduced over 100 people to the bums of the V&A, and it looks like they had a blast!

In fact, we know they had a blast, based on the things people shared about their tour on social media.

It’s good to know that we really made a difference to someone’s day! There was also someone who shared that it was their first visit to V&A and our tour inspired them to come along for the evening – in terms of event feedback, you don’t get much better than that! Everyone who got hands on with us received a coveted MuseumBums Badge.

Throughout the evening we challenged everyone who was at the V&A Late to find the best bum in the building; be it big, small, classical, post-modern or something completely unexpected. What’s more, we asked people to come up with a caption that best encapsulates the bottom and the spirit of Museum Bums. The winners will receive a copy of Museum Bums: A Cheeky Look at Butts in Art when it is released in September.

And which bums won the day? These ones.

We can’t wait to run more events in museums and galleries as we get closer to the release of Museum Bums: A Cheeky Look at Butts in Art. If you’re interested in one of our interactive tours, please get in touch with us using our contact form.