Museum professionals have welcomed some of the ideas in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) museums review, which was launched in March as part of its culture white paper.
The review, which is expected to be completed by April 2017, will consider themes including the national infrastructure for museums; how government-sponsored museums might work better together and with other institutions; and the relationship that Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund have with local and regional museums. It will also explore opportunities within digitisation, storage, shared services and resilience across the sector.
Ellen McAdam, the director of Birmingham Museums Trust, points to investing in regional storage facilities and partnerships with local universities as two ways forward.
“It has often been the case that for regional museums, the unglamorous back-of-house facilities have tended to be neglected in favour of visitor-facing ones, so a programme of investment in collections care would be very welcome,” she says. “It would help to make collections in store more accessible to the public.”
McAdam also highlights potential synergies between universities and museums over using collections for research feeding into public interpretation.
Increasing accessibility
“Anything we can do to make collections more accessible to create local tourist economies is really welcome,” she adds.
The white paper focuses on digitisation as instrumental in improving accessibility and fostering collaboration between institutions. Iain Watson, the director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, says the Art UK project to publish the entirety of the country’s publicly owned oil paintings online is exemplar for future skills-based networks.
“There is real concern for small towns with significant collections in specialist areas. It’s going to be hard to support the knowledge around that,” he says. “Think of an infrastructure where museums with the expertise can be funded in some way to actually support that subject area across the country, and provide that support and share knowledge.”
Watson also suggests considering how local museums are relevant to their communities, as well as how institutions might tackle global issues such as climate change, economic inequality and migration.
“The whole issue of agency, how people shape museums – moving away from ‘on behalf of’ and towards ‘in association with’ – needs looking at,” he says.
Others point to parts of the white paper that consider the arts sector more broadly. The paper’s executive summary emphasises the need for a “more diverse leadership and workforce in the cultural sector”.
Maggie Appleton, the chief executive officer of the RAF Museum, says there are big issues about the lack of representation in museums, not just in terms of cultural diversity, but also class.
John Orna-Ornstein, the director of museums at the arts council, says the issue of independence for local authority museums may be another interesting area for the review to look at.
“There are lots of restrictions that tie the hands of local authority museums,” he says. “That’s something that needs to be challenged, given the financial state, in some cases, is declining.”
The review, which is expected to be completed by April 2017, will consider themes including the national infrastructure for museums; how government-sponsored museums might work better together and with other institutions; and the relationship that Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund have with local and regional museums. It will also explore opportunities within digitisation, storage, shared services and resilience across the sector.
Ellen McAdam, the director of Birmingham Museums Trust, points to investing in regional storage facilities and partnerships with local universities as two ways forward.
“It has often been the case that for regional museums, the unglamorous back-of-house facilities have tended to be neglected in favour of visitor-facing ones, so a programme of investment in collections care would be very welcome,” she says. “It would help to make collections in store more accessible to the public.”
McAdam also highlights potential synergies between universities and museums over using collections for research feeding into public interpretation.
Increasing accessibility
“Anything we can do to make collections more accessible to create local tourist economies is really welcome,” she adds.
The white paper focuses on digitisation as instrumental in improving accessibility and fostering collaboration between institutions. Iain Watson, the director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, says the Art UK project to publish the entirety of the country’s publicly owned oil paintings online is exemplar for future skills-based networks.
“There is real concern for small towns with significant collections in specialist areas. It’s going to be hard to support the knowledge around that,” he says. “Think of an infrastructure where museums with the expertise can be funded in some way to actually support that subject area across the country, and provide that support and share knowledge.”
Watson also suggests considering how local museums are relevant to their communities, as well as how institutions might tackle global issues such as climate change, economic inequality and migration.
“The whole issue of agency, how people shape museums – moving away from ‘on behalf of’ and towards ‘in association with’ – needs looking at,” he says.
Others point to parts of the white paper that consider the arts sector more broadly. The paper’s executive summary emphasises the need for a “more diverse leadership and workforce in the cultural sector”.
Maggie Appleton, the chief executive officer of the RAF Museum, says there are big issues about the lack of representation in museums, not just in terms of cultural diversity, but also class.
John Orna-Ornstein, the director of museums at the arts council, says the issue of independence for local authority museums may be another interesting area for the review to look at.
“There are lots of restrictions that tie the hands of local authority museums,” he says. “That’s something that needs to be challenged, given the financial state, in some cases, is declining.”