Dundee's V&A museum is a wonder of Scotland – Scotsman comment

V&A museum in Dundee has enriched our lives in both financial and cultural ways

Hurray for the V&A! The Dundee museum has helped put the city on the map – not just of Scotland but the world. The extent of its effect is made clear in new research which found it has boosted Scotland’s economy by more than £300 million, while helping to support a total of 450 jobs in the city.

It shows just what the arts sector can do – particularly when a landmark building like the one created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma is involved – in terms of cold, hard cash. The museum has been visited more than 1.7 million times since it opened in 2018, with half of those made by people who had never been to Dundee before.

It is a city that is not without its problems. But its leaders had the vision and the ambition to do something unexpected and out of the ordinary. And it is paying off in no uncertain terms, enriching people’s lives both culturally and financially. There’s a saying that “where there’s muck, there’s brass”, but beauty can be even more lucrative.