Sir Tristram Hunt FRHistS

Sir Tristram Hunt is Director of the V&A – a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. Since taking up the post in 2017, he has championed design education in UK schools, encouraged debate around the history of the museum's global collections and overseen the transition to a multi-site museum. Six UK venues now include V&A South Kensington, V&A Wedgwood Collection, V&A Dundee, Young V&A (formerly V&A Museum of Childhood) and V&A East Storehouse and V&A East Museum, two free cultural destinations dedicated to transforming public access to museum collections. 

Prior to joining the V&A, Tristram Hunt was Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central and Shadow Secretary of State for Education. He has a doctorate in Victorian history from Cambridge University. In addition to numerous radio and TV programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, he is the author of several books, including Ten Cities That Made an Empire (2014), The Lives of the Objects (2019) telling the story of the V&A collection, and The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain (2021).

 Sir Tristram was knighted in the 2026 New Year Honours List. He is a member of the UK Soft Power Council, the Council of the Royal College of Art, the Scientific Council of the Musée du Louvre, a Governor of The Courtauld and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.