Brought up in Fife, Leonie Bell has championed cultural change across Scotland, leading to her dream job as director of V&A Dundee

Lead image credit: Julie Howden

What does a typical work day look like?

I travel a lot, but when I’m in Dundee I get up early, do yoga and cycle along the riverfront to work. I try to only check emails twice a day so I can focus on meetings and planning. I’ll walk around our beautiful outdoor plaza and see what’s happening, then I’ll talk to the team working across the museum. I balance office time with being in all of our amazing museum spaces, indoors and out.

David Bowie: On Tour is opening at V&A Dundee in November. What parts of his story were you particularly drawn to?

David Bowie spent so much time archiving his own life. What visitors will get is a sense of the public David Bowie – expressed through his music, art, film and fashion – and the deeply personal, private Bowie. You have this insight into him drawing and doodling, then you get the epic presentation that we’re familiar with. There are really intimate sketches, keys he kept and his passport, which I found really moving when I looked at the picture of it. 

Freddie Burretti-designed costume for The David Bowie Tour, 1973. Credit: David Parry / PA Media

The Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery exhibition makes its UK debut with the museum next year. What makes her work so enduring?

Fashion comes and goes, but Vivienne Westwood was a force. She created eras. In Scotland, we’re particularly drawn to the way she brought tradition and contemporary subcultures together. She could take tartan – a symbol of military and royalty – and make it equally at home in punk culture. She really embodied multiple ideas coexisting together in a piece of jewellery or a garment, and had a complete sense of who she was.

Have you taken a risk that was career-changing?

Looking back, all the zigzag moves I made across different cultural and organisational contexts prepared me for the V&A job. At the time I was living in Glasgow with my family and working in beautiful Paisley on their radical cultural regeneration, so taking the job felt like a huge personal and professional risk. But I’m so in my natural habitat here. I’m hugely committed to what this organisation represents and at the heart of me, I’ve always been into what design and architecture can do when it’s about people, connection and sparking ideas. 

Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery opens at V&A Dundee on 26th March 2027. Credit: Jo Metson Scott

You were born in Dundee. Does leading the museum feel like coming full circle?

Growing up nearby, I would swim at weekends in the Olympia Leisure Centre. Back then, the roads and tunnels that surrounded the centre censored the space from the rest of the city. It didn’t feel safe beyond 5pm. Now we have this amazing building that people use 24 hours a day outside, and that wasn’t imaginable in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I love the architecture of the building so much, and being able to work here is a pinch-me moment daily.

What exhibition changed the way you thought about design?

I was lucky enough to be in London in 1994 when I saw an exhibition at the V&A called Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads and Skaters. It was the first time a museum like the V&A had showcased a really spectacular fashion exhibition, exploring how much haute couture is influenced by streetwear, subcultural design and communities of young people. 

One of the highlights from David Bowie’s archive, travelling to venues across the UK for the V&A’s David Bowie: On Tour from November 2026. Credit: David Parry / PA Media

V&A Dundee is set for a multi-million pound revamp in time for its 10th anniversary in 2028. What excites you about the museum’s next chapter?

The city deserves ambitious cultural organisations. When you do something as iconic as build a V&A in Dundee, where nobody expected it to be, there’s a lot of learning in the first few years. I’m so proud that we’ve launched a call-out for people’s treasured items, which will sit alongside museum collections when our Scottish Design Galleries reopen in 2028. Ultimately, I want this to be a place that inspires people – somewhere they can come for joy and reflection, especially during these difficult times.

What piece of professional wisdom have you always carried with you?

Someone once said to me: “It’s never about the power you accrue through your roles. Think about the influence you have and how you can use it to create opportunities for others.” I thought that was such a feminist perspective on moving through your career – that all the knowledge and the privilege that comes with it isn’t about empowering you, it’s about helping someone else.