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Archive for the ‘Museum [Insider]’ Category

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Is 2012 really only about sport?

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 11, 2011 at 11:43 am

Are you more excited about the Olympics or the royal wedding?

Everyone’s talking about 2012. The schedule has been announced for the Olympic Games and the news on TV seems to be giving us almost daily updates on progress at the site in east London. It’s almost as if we’re wishing the rest of 2011 away, in favour of a year of sport.

The museum world is tapping into this sporting enthusiasm too, of course. There are exhibitions and events planned across the country next year celebrating local sporting heroes, Olympians and our nation’s proud sporting heritage.

But I’ve spotted that for museum 2012 isn’t necessarily all about the rackets, balls and running shoes.

It’s interesting to note that museums are getting behind the theme of the monarchy as inspiration for exhibitions and development projects.

The National Maritime Museum and British Library are hosting exhibitions on a royal theme. Kensington Palace will be telling stories about Queen Victoria and the Tower of London is undergoing a redisplay of the Crown Jewels. The National Portrait Gallery has a touring exhibition and the Royal Pavillion at Brighton is hosting some regal outfits for a temporary display.

So while international visitors are gawping at sport on the track and field, they can also take in a little of this nation’s USP – the monarchy.

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Another refurb for Torre Abbey

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on March 10, 2011 at 7:33 pm

Did you know the seaside resort of Torquay gets its name from a 12th-century monastic institution? Torre Abbey is over 800 years old – and do they know it. Hot on the heels of a refurbishment project there a few years ago, they are now planning another huge investment in the site.

They’re about to make some renovations to the physical structure of the site and overhaul the learning and exhibition spaces. It’s a long-haul project, taking until probably 2015. But the great news is that they don’t have to close the entire site while they do the works.

There’s more information about the site and the refurbishment in an article on Museum [Insider].

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Postal museum on the move

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on February 18, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Imagine what it must be like to move a museum.

The British Postal Museum and Archive – which is almost two museums on two sites – is about to relocate from, well, just about everywhere in the south east. Their collection is currently spread over a number of sites in London and Essex and it’s all about to be brought together into a nwely reconditioned building in Swindon.

The Wiltshire town is fast becoming the new cultural heritage capital of the country, with the National Trust’s headquarters and STEAM already on the site, by the Great Western Railway.

The project is well underway in planning, with an HLF phase 2 application due in autumn 2011. All the details, as per norm, on Museum [Insider].

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What is Preston Guild?

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on February 9, 2011 at 4:28 pm

Have you ever heard of the Preston Guild? I hadn’t, until I started researching an article about a new gallery being installed at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston, Lancashire.

The Guild Gallery will open in September 2012, at the same time as their once-in-a-generation celebration called the Guild. It takes place in the city every 20 years and dates back to 1179.

The former town’s Charter, granted by Henry II, gave burgesses – citizens with special rights – the ability to control trade within the town. The holding of the Guild was a major occasion and the cause of much celebration across the city. People descended on Preston (Priest Town) to attend the festival, trade their wares, participate in processions, balls and associated events and generally enjoy themselves.

Noawadays the Preston Guild plays an important role in the development of the city as a thriving and important place. It is the only Guild still celebrated in the UK and as such is unique.

Of course, since the advent of Free Trade, the original purpose has changed. However, the renewal of those rights, although now symbolic, is an essential element of the Guild and with burgesses hereditary and honorary arriving from around the world to reaffirm their historic status in the first week of September, it has become a major celebration of social and economic progress and a vehicle for visioning the future.

It all sounds rather jolly, doesn’t it? And they get a fabulous new museum gallery to mark the event.

There we are. You know what a guild is now.

 

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New science gallery in Birmingham

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on January 28, 2011 at 8:44 am

I’ve written an article for Museum [Insider] about the new gallery being built at Thinktank, the Birmingham Science Museum.

The museum was awarded £900,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a redevelopment of one of their existing galleries into a new, shiny, multimedia interpretive exhibition space. The plan is to get it open in time for the end of 2012, the year that every museum development project appears to be opening. (I wonder if there’ll be any work for suppliers to the heritage sector in 2013?!)

The piece about Thinktank is live on the M[I] site now.

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2010 – the year in review

In Museum [Insider], new content on January 10, 2011 at 9:06 am

The start of a new year is an ideal time to look back and take stock of what’s happened over the last twelve months. In terms of the British arts sector and the way in which it is funded, 2010 saw some pretty big changes.

The arrival of the new coalition government in the late spring heralded a raft of changes and amendments not only to the way in which the museum and heritage sector is funded, but also how some of the bodies which represent and provide for it are organised.

The changes introduced by the Government have affected the many bodies sponsored directly by the Treasury. And they have also had implications for local and regional museums across the country.

At first sight, it might seem that these changes are most likely to affect people working in the museum sector. But if money is drying up, then suppliers to the sector are likely to be affected as well. And it’s worth considering whether the bad news that the nation’s museums have received in the last year is indeed all bad news. In some cases money is no longer available for large-scale building projects. In others, redundancies for permanent staff mean that opportunities for consultancy have opened up. Someone needs to do the work!

There’s a large review article, live on Museum [Insider] now, detailing the breadth and depth of the cuts and the impact they are likely to have on the museum and heritage sector, and also the private sector which supplies them. It’s perhaps not all such bad news.

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New museum for Oxford

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on December 21, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Oxford has been the centre of much museological interest in recent years, with major redevelopments taking place at the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers and with countless smaller museum and library interventions and world-class exhibitions. Now the city is set to play host to another new museum – The Story Museum.

It’s being housed in a building in the city centre which has already been secured. The revamped structure will open to the public in 2014. The plan of how they will get to that point is covered in an article on Museum [Insider].

The museum aims to be a place where children and adults can explore stories – old and modern and from around the world – and learn about their creators. There is mounting evidence that enjoying a rich variety of stories as they grow helps children to fulfil their potential. It can even break cycles of deprivation.

This won’t be just a museum, though. The Story Museum is already taking story performances, exhibitions, activities and ideas to schools and communities. We will watch with interest to see what happens there next .

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Overhauling the Imperial War Museum

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on November 5, 2010 at 9:09 am

There are plans afoot to change the way visitors interact with the collection at the Imperial War Museum, London.

The IWM are currently in a master planning process with Foster + Partners, who are providing the museum with ideas about how to redevelop the public galleries at the Lambeth Road site. The aim is to reopen the First World War galleries (which were last udpated in the early 90s) in time for the national commemoration of the start of the conflict in 2014. They’d then work on the Second World War and other galleries over the following years.

There’s a piece about the plans on Museum [Insider].

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What’s next for museum education?

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on November 4, 2010 at 8:28 am

The way education services in museums are run has changed enormously over time. From clipboards and photocopied worksheets to interactive whiteboards and sophisticated mechanisms for measuring learning. As a sector we are able to articulate what we want people to learn when they interact with a museum – at the museum, on their computer or in their school – and we have the tools to plan how to achieve this.

We’ve also made huge leaps and bounds in terms of access to museums and their collections, widening audiences and encouraging a new generation of museum visitors.

Like an impatient schoolchild, the education sector doesn’t like to sit still for long. It always wants to move on and find new ways of working.

So I asked myself, and a few others, what we think the future is for museum education. What’s next on the agenda?

I spoke to Samantha Heywood (Director of Learning and Interpretation at the Imperial War Museum), Gillian Wolfe (Director of Learning at Dulwich Picture Gallery) and Viv Golding (a lecturer and museum learning expert at the Univesity of Leicester’s Department of Museum Studies) and asked them what they thought was coming next.

Their answers make for interesting reading, in a features article on Museum [Insider].

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Cuts to cultural spending

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on October 21, 2010 at 6:33 pm

Another day of announcements about cuts to public sector spending in the UK, another article about the impact on the heritage sector.

Yesterday George Osborne announced where the cuts will come and broadly where the cuts will take hold in the museum industry. Speaking in the House of Commons, Osborne said:

“Britain’s arts, heritage and sport all have enormous value in their own right, but our rich and varied cultural life is also one of our country’s greatest economic assets. The resource budget for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will come down to £1.1 billion by 2014-15.

Administrative costs are being reduced by 41% and 19 quangos will be abolished or reformed. All that is being done so that we can limit four-year reductions to 15% in core programmes such as our national museums, the front-line funding provided to our arts and Sport England’s whole sport plans.

We will complete the new world-class building extensions for the Tate Gallery and the British Museum.

The Secretary of State will provide details of further projects shortly. I can also announce today that, in order for our nation’s culture and heritage to remain available to all, we will continue to fund free entry to museums and galleries. There is also ongoing provision of the £9.3 billion of public funding for a safe and successful Olympic and Paralympic games in London in 2012.”
Initial analysis in live now on on Museum [Insider]. We’ll be writing up a full analysis of the impact of the coalition Government’s actions and spending review in the coming weeks, together with more detailed information about the exact implications of the spending reductions.

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