Museums, with artist-added value
What is the true value of museums and artists working together?
Collaborating with performers, dancers, artists and makers brings massive benefits for museum and heritage audiences and energises the people that work in them, as recent research for Arts Council England and the British Museum has revealed.
Artists bring a fresh eye and an engaging perspective to historic objects and places.
They inject new content, which was described by research respondents as more human and emotionally powerful, for people who may find museums inaccessible.
British Museum staff described Grayson Perry’s The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman as “the noisiest exhibition we have had here with visitors talking, laughing and speaking to strangers”.
The possibilities for artists to say the unsayable, to challenge and to breathe new life into collections and audiences are many and varied.
In 2011 Enchanted Palace – the temporary animation by designers, performers and artists of Kensington Palace – was a revelation.
Creating extraordinary effects in what had become a tired series of rooms enabled staff to test new ideas and paved the way for the transformation of the palace. At London’s National Gallery, a collaboration with the Royal Ballet and contemporary artists – Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 – attracted a very different demographic: most visitors were under 45 , with many in their early 20s.
One of the participants in the research said that “these are new conversations for curators because they’ve been working with things made by, and belonging to, dead people”.
A few enlightened organisations are now appointing creative producers – a bold step towards rethinking content, interpretation and programming. These people, often with an arts background, are able to lead thinking and act as advocates for change, while managing the associated practical risks.
At the Natural History Museum, Sarah Punshon, a theatre and film director, was commissioned to open-up underused spaces and collections to families, and to inspire greater cross-departmental collaboration.
She described her role as “holding the limits and making it exciting for artists as well as for the museum”. Esme Ward, head of learning and engagement at the Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery, said how “liberating it is to work with artists – they’re responsive, lively, fun... their relationships with audiences feel very personal”.
Many cultural organisations face uncertain times. But this may be the perfect moment to use artists, who are people who think and act radically and laterally and are often able to create amazing experiences on a shoestring.
Caro Howell, the director of the Foundling Museum, reignited its original vision as the place “where artists and children have inspired each other since 1740”, tracking a long continuum back to the 18th century and Handel and Hogarth.
In championing this from the top she is building a deeper and more lasting resonance for the place of artists in the museum today. Understanding your organisation’s spirit – and how artists will enable you to articulate and explore this better with your audiences – is the very first step.
This is not the safest route – artists’ work is rarely bland and will attract attention. It may divide the public, but is that a bad thing?
As well as attracting new people to the British Museum, Perry’s exhibition was a big commercial success. In times of austerity, where conversations are focused on resilience and survival, artists and performers may have much more to offer museums than immediately meets the eye.
Anne Murch and Gaby Porter are independent cultural consultants
Artists bring a fresh eye and an engaging perspective to historic objects and places.
They inject new content, which was described by research respondents as more human and emotionally powerful, for people who may find museums inaccessible.
British Museum staff described Grayson Perry’s The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman as “the noisiest exhibition we have had here with visitors talking, laughing and speaking to strangers”.
The possibilities for artists to say the unsayable, to challenge and to breathe new life into collections and audiences are many and varied.
In 2011 Enchanted Palace – the temporary animation by designers, performers and artists of Kensington Palace – was a revelation.
Creating extraordinary effects in what had become a tired series of rooms enabled staff to test new ideas and paved the way for the transformation of the palace. At London’s National Gallery, a collaboration with the Royal Ballet and contemporary artists – Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 – attracted a very different demographic: most visitors were under 45 , with many in their early 20s.
One of the participants in the research said that “these are new conversations for curators because they’ve been working with things made by, and belonging to, dead people”.
A few enlightened organisations are now appointing creative producers – a bold step towards rethinking content, interpretation and programming. These people, often with an arts background, are able to lead thinking and act as advocates for change, while managing the associated practical risks.
At the Natural History Museum, Sarah Punshon, a theatre and film director, was commissioned to open-up underused spaces and collections to families, and to inspire greater cross-departmental collaboration.
She described her role as “holding the limits and making it exciting for artists as well as for the museum”. Esme Ward, head of learning and engagement at the Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery, said how “liberating it is to work with artists – they’re responsive, lively, fun... their relationships with audiences feel very personal”.
Many cultural organisations face uncertain times. But this may be the perfect moment to use artists, who are people who think and act radically and laterally and are often able to create amazing experiences on a shoestring.
Caro Howell, the director of the Foundling Museum, reignited its original vision as the place “where artists and children have inspired each other since 1740”, tracking a long continuum back to the 18th century and Handel and Hogarth.
In championing this from the top she is building a deeper and more lasting resonance for the place of artists in the museum today. Understanding your organisation’s spirit – and how artists will enable you to articulate and explore this better with your audiences – is the very first step.
This is not the safest route – artists’ work is rarely bland and will attract attention. It may divide the public, but is that a bad thing?
As well as attracting new people to the British Museum, Perry’s exhibition was a big commercial success. In times of austerity, where conversations are focused on resilience and survival, artists and performers may have much more to offer museums than immediately meets the eye.
Anne Murch and Gaby Porter are independent cultural consultants