Museums in Northern Ireland face the challenge of marking and reinterpreting two pivotal moments in the nation’s history, simultaneously – the 1916 Easter Rising rebellion and the battle of the Somme – while also adapting to a radical restructure of their local authorities.
The death of a prison officer, following a bomb blast in Belfast in March this year claimed by a dissident group of republicans widely referred to as the new IRA, is a grave reminder that longstanding tensions are never far from boiling point in Northern Ireland.
Interpreting seminal historical events of 100 years ago is still no easy feat in the context of a fragile peace agreement. And this challenge has come at a time when the museum sector is still adjusting to the amalgamation of Northern Ireland’s 26 local authorities, which, last April, were replaced by 11 super-councils, nine of which now operate a museums service.
Paddy Gilmore, the director of learning and partnership at National Museums Northern Ireland, says: “People look to museums to tell these stories with a degree of objectivity. We have a responsibility to reflect the different perspectives and viewpoints involved and the complexity of our history. The events of 1916 have a real contemporary relevance, which also resonates through 100 years of Irish history and politics.”
He says that as the reforms have heralded no change in the political make-up of the councils there has been little impact on Northern Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries, which commemorates events that occurred in Northern Ireland between 1912 and 1922.
In fact, so far, the changes seem to have had a positive impact on the projects commemorating the 1916 rebellion, which started in April while Britain’s military forces, including a large proportion of Irish fighters, were fighting in world war one. Tens of thousands of soldiers would lose their lives during the Somme offensive, which took place between July and November the same year.
The nature of the council restructure means larger groups of museums are being managed by one single administration, which should encourage greater collaboration between cultural institutions, because projects made in partnership not only allow the sharing of collections but are also attractive to funders.
The merging of Derry City Council and Strabane District Council means that the Tower Museum in Derry and Alley Theatre Arts and Conference Centre, in Strabane, are now run by the same administration. Although the two institutions have worked together in the past, they now have the opportunity to collaborate on a large-scale project devoted to the year of 1916. The exhibition Untold Stories, which will open at the Tower Museum in April, will highlight the significance of events in 1916 through the personal stories of more than 20 individuals that lived during that time. And related talks and events will take place at the Alley Theatre.
By focusing on people from the local area, the exhibition, which features items from the collections of both institutions, fulfills the need to ensure that cultural projects engage the increasingly diverse audience that the merging of the councils has created.
“We didn’t just want the exhibition to be a regurgitation of history,” says Margaret Edwards, the education officer at Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Museums Services. Previously, the Tower Museum catered for a mainly urban audience, but it now has to engage harder-to-reach rural communities.
Going forward, says Edwards, outreach work will play an important role in engaging younger and older visitor groups.
Management changes
In addition to the challenge of operating in bigger catchment areas, many museums have also had to adapt to a new management structure. A year down the line, says Chris Bailey, the director of Northern Ireland Museums Council, some council struc- tures have still not been set, particularly at a management level. “So while museums know where they sit within the new management struc- tures, in most cases the lines of accountability and management between the front- line service and the directo- rial heads of department still needs to be settled,” he says.
There has been no indication that any major capital projects or significant changes to funding streams will be disrupted, but as previously reported in Museums Journal, for independent museums, some of which are on the brink of closure, the expanded areas mean there will be more applicants for the handful of council grants available.
Another potential drawback is that bigger local authorities mean more tiers of management for museums to negotiate. Museums Journal understands that this has raised concerns that it might become more difficult for museums to wield influence and ensure decision makers hear their voice.
New blood at a management level could be advantageous though: “We should see this as an opportunity. There are all these new directors coming in and they will be looking for people to advise and support on heritage and museums,” says Roisin Doherty, a curator at Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Museums Services. It is also reassuring that the reforms are unlikely to result in workforce cuts in museums. “There is no overt threat to staffing levels apparent to us,” says Bailey.
In many cases cultural institutions are also having to adapt to being run under the jurisdiction of a new council directorate, which can often bring a change of culture, new objectives and ways of working with it.
Prior to the changes, museums and heritage sites run by Derry City Council operated from within the Development directorate, whereas now they fall within the remit of Business and Culture.
Edwards says two of the key priorities for the new council going forward will be business growth and developing strong communities. “There is a big push for the councils to be much more commercially minded,” says Edwards. “We need to look for opportunities to generate income and develop our commercial enterprises.”
Another aspect of the reforms to local government is the new community planning duty, which requires councils to work with a range of organisations (statutory bodies, businesses, education institutions, community and voluntary organisations) to develop a plan to improve wellbeing, community cohesion and people’s quality of life.
Community engagement
Bailey says: “In essence it’s placing a duty upon these local authorities to ensure they deliver what has been called citizen focused ser- vices. Implicit within that is the need for a considerable degree of consultation.”
Of course the concept of engaging with audiences is nothing new for museums, says Bailey, adding that they could advise other council services on community planning and engagement.
On the face of it the council restructuring changes look to be largely positive for local authority museums. But with such a variety of different approaches being taken by councils, there are bound to be some museum services that find the final bedding-in process more challenging than others.
of government departments in Northern Ireland will reduce from 12 to nine after the May elections.
The changes are designed to create better coordinated, more efficient services. As a result of the streamlining, a new Department for Communities will take over the existing functions of the Department of Culture and Leisure (Dcal), which currently has responsibility for museums.
This realignment of government departments coincides with Dcal’s strategy for culture and arts 2016- 2026, which aims to set a blueprint for arts and culture over the next 10 years.
But the Ministerial Arts Advisory Forum set up to help devise the strategy has been criticised for not representing the museum sector, and included
no representatives from national museums.
“The mechanism they used to set up this advisory group wasn’t particularly welcome”, says Paddy Gilmore, the director of learning and partnership at National Museums Northern Ireland.
There are also concerns that the strategy’s definition of the arts and its premise that culture should be developed at a community level could be restrictive. The consultation on the Dcal strategy for culture and arts ended in February.
The death of a prison officer, following a bomb blast in Belfast in March this year claimed by a dissident group of republicans widely referred to as the new IRA, is a grave reminder that longstanding tensions are never far from boiling point in Northern Ireland.
Interpreting seminal historical events of 100 years ago is still no easy feat in the context of a fragile peace agreement. And this challenge has come at a time when the museum sector is still adjusting to the amalgamation of Northern Ireland’s 26 local authorities, which, last April, were replaced by 11 super-councils, nine of which now operate a museums service.
Paddy Gilmore, the director of learning and partnership at National Museums Northern Ireland, says: “People look to museums to tell these stories with a degree of objectivity. We have a responsibility to reflect the different perspectives and viewpoints involved and the complexity of our history. The events of 1916 have a real contemporary relevance, which also resonates through 100 years of Irish history and politics.”
He says that as the reforms have heralded no change in the political make-up of the councils there has been little impact on Northern Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries, which commemorates events that occurred in Northern Ireland between 1912 and 1922.
In fact, so far, the changes seem to have had a positive impact on the projects commemorating the 1916 rebellion, which started in April while Britain’s military forces, including a large proportion of Irish fighters, were fighting in world war one. Tens of thousands of soldiers would lose their lives during the Somme offensive, which took place between July and November the same year.
The nature of the council restructure means larger groups of museums are being managed by one single administration, which should encourage greater collaboration between cultural institutions, because projects made in partnership not only allow the sharing of collections but are also attractive to funders.
The merging of Derry City Council and Strabane District Council means that the Tower Museum in Derry and Alley Theatre Arts and Conference Centre, in Strabane, are now run by the same administration. Although the two institutions have worked together in the past, they now have the opportunity to collaborate on a large-scale project devoted to the year of 1916. The exhibition Untold Stories, which will open at the Tower Museum in April, will highlight the significance of events in 1916 through the personal stories of more than 20 individuals that lived during that time. And related talks and events will take place at the Alley Theatre.
By focusing on people from the local area, the exhibition, which features items from the collections of both institutions, fulfills the need to ensure that cultural projects engage the increasingly diverse audience that the merging of the councils has created.
“We didn’t just want the exhibition to be a regurgitation of history,” says Margaret Edwards, the education officer at Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Museums Services. Previously, the Tower Museum catered for a mainly urban audience, but it now has to engage harder-to-reach rural communities.
Going forward, says Edwards, outreach work will play an important role in engaging younger and older visitor groups.
Management changes
In addition to the challenge of operating in bigger catchment areas, many museums have also had to adapt to a new management structure. A year down the line, says Chris Bailey, the director of Northern Ireland Museums Council, some council struc- tures have still not been set, particularly at a management level. “So while museums know where they sit within the new management struc- tures, in most cases the lines of accountability and management between the front- line service and the directo- rial heads of department still needs to be settled,” he says.
There has been no indication that any major capital projects or significant changes to funding streams will be disrupted, but as previously reported in Museums Journal, for independent museums, some of which are on the brink of closure, the expanded areas mean there will be more applicants for the handful of council grants available.
Another potential drawback is that bigger local authorities mean more tiers of management for museums to negotiate. Museums Journal understands that this has raised concerns that it might become more difficult for museums to wield influence and ensure decision makers hear their voice.
New blood at a management level could be advantageous though: “We should see this as an opportunity. There are all these new directors coming in and they will be looking for people to advise and support on heritage and museums,” says Roisin Doherty, a curator at Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Museums Services. It is also reassuring that the reforms are unlikely to result in workforce cuts in museums. “There is no overt threat to staffing levels apparent to us,” says Bailey.
In many cases cultural institutions are also having to adapt to being run under the jurisdiction of a new council directorate, which can often bring a change of culture, new objectives and ways of working with it.
Prior to the changes, museums and heritage sites run by Derry City Council operated from within the Development directorate, whereas now they fall within the remit of Business and Culture.
Edwards says two of the key priorities for the new council going forward will be business growth and developing strong communities. “There is a big push for the councils to be much more commercially minded,” says Edwards. “We need to look for opportunities to generate income and develop our commercial enterprises.”
Another aspect of the reforms to local government is the new community planning duty, which requires councils to work with a range of organisations (statutory bodies, businesses, education institutions, community and voluntary organisations) to develop a plan to improve wellbeing, community cohesion and people’s quality of life.
Community engagement
Bailey says: “In essence it’s placing a duty upon these local authorities to ensure they deliver what has been called citizen focused ser- vices. Implicit within that is the need for a considerable degree of consultation.”
Of course the concept of engaging with audiences is nothing new for museums, says Bailey, adding that they could advise other council services on community planning and engagement.
On the face of it the council restructuring changes look to be largely positive for local authority museums. But with such a variety of different approaches being taken by councils, there are bound to be some museum services that find the final bedding-in process more challenging than others.
New strategy for the arts
Following on from the recent local authority reorganisation, the museum sector in Northern Ireland is also preparing for change at a national level. The numberof government departments in Northern Ireland will reduce from 12 to nine after the May elections.
The changes are designed to create better coordinated, more efficient services. As a result of the streamlining, a new Department for Communities will take over the existing functions of the Department of Culture and Leisure (Dcal), which currently has responsibility for museums.
This realignment of government departments coincides with Dcal’s strategy for culture and arts 2016- 2026, which aims to set a blueprint for arts and culture over the next 10 years.
But the Ministerial Arts Advisory Forum set up to help devise the strategy has been criticised for not representing the museum sector, and included
no representatives from national museums.
“The mechanism they used to set up this advisory group wasn’t particularly welcome”, says Paddy Gilmore, the director of learning and partnership at National Museums Northern Ireland.
There are also concerns that the strategy’s definition of the arts and its premise that culture should be developed at a community level could be restrictive. The consultation on the Dcal strategy for culture and arts ended in February.
