Tristram Hunt inherits a V&A in pretty good shape

From what I saw of the V&A as a member of the Art Fund's judging panel for its Museum of the Year accolade last summer, Tristram Hunt is inheriting an organisation in pretty good shape.

After a bit of argy bargy over hot croissants and cold coffee, we judges decided to give the prestigious award to the South Kensington institution because it was unquestionably a centre of excellence serving an appreciative public to a high degree.

Added to which, its ability to attract a truly diverse audience was a lot better than most museums.

Tristram Hunt's two immediate predecessors - although quite unlike one another - succeeded in turning the V&A into a vibrant, contemporary, intelligent institution that had the self confidence to overcome the public embarrassments of a notoriously awful Saatchi & Saatchi advertising campaign ("An ace caff, with quite a nice museum attached") and rejection of a showy Daniel Libeskind extension.

The museum that Mr Hunt joins is ambitious, alive and expanding. The new V&A Dundee is due to open next year, plus there are major projects planned from the East End to the Far East.

One of the first things the new director will have to consider is the number and scale of all these new initiatives. Are they really all necessary? Will they cost too much? Does he agree with the strategy as currently set?

On the face of it, the challenges he will face would appear smaller than those the new director of the Tate will encounter. He is not filling a vacuum and all the associated elephant traps the unwary can fall into when following a longstanding legendary leader who has shaped an internationally admired mega-brand around his own personality.

He is taking over a reasonably happy and healthy museum at a time when the arts and creative industries have an increasingly important role to play economically, culturally, and across all areas of education.

The V&A's collection and remit means it could and should be leading from the front and showing museums and arts organisations across the world the potential they have to unite, inspire, and enlighten us all.