Former directors of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum have faced a number of challenges, particularly Sydney Cockerell, who said the museum was a "pigstye" when he joined in 1908. Visitors will be able to judge Cockerell's claim that he turned the Fitz into "a palace" at an exhibition about his directorship that opens at the museum this month.
The challenges facing the museum's latest director, Timothy Potts, are less onerous. Potts, who arrived from the Kimbell Art Museum in the US in January this year, joined an institution that is by far the biggest of the eight museums run by the University of Cambridge.
The Fitzwilliam, which benefited from a recent £12m redevelopment under Potts's predecessor, Duncan Robinson, is now one of the UK's pre-eminent university museums, with more than half a million objects spread across a broad range of periods and disciplines.
But there are some parallels between Cockerell and Potts. Cockerell's time at the Fitzwilliam was marked by some important additions to the collection, such as Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia.
Potts arrived with a reputation for careful buying at the Kimbell, where he focused acquisitions on a small number of high quality purchases, including works by European artists such as Donatello as well as significant works from Asia and South America.
But even though he says acquisitions are a priority for him at the Fitzwilliam, he knows that funding is tricky in the UK.
"There is no question that there is more money in the US for acquisitions," Potts says. "The funding environment is certainly more challenging here but it can be done when really outstanding and important objects are available. Where we need to work harder is supplementing the public funds with private benefaction and support, which is traditionally much stronger in the United States."
Funding also affects the number of people working at the Fitzwilliam, something that Potts is concerned about. "The staffing is very tight," he says. "For the size of the collection, we have relatively few keepers, conservators, and people in education and development. In almost every department the staff is very trim so a lot is done by relatively few people."
Potts says another of his priorities is to develop the exhibitions programme and his contacts in the US have already led to the Fitzwilliam staging an exhibition of treasures from ancient Georgia.
From the Land of the Golden Fleece opened in October and comes to Cambridge as part of a world tour. The Fitzwilliam is the exhibition's only UK venue, and it is being shown alongside a display of ancient coins from the Black Sea, drawn largely from the museum's own collection.
From the Land of the Golden Fleece will be followed by Darwin's Eye, which will be the Fitzwilliam's contribution to the many activities taking place next year to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.
Curators as directors
Potts's emphasis on acquisitions and exhibitions probably comes from his background as a curator and academic and his appointment reflects a move by some art museums to recruit scholarly curators as directors.
They include Nicholas Penny, who started as a lecturer in art history and was the senior curator for sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington before joining the National Gallery as its director earlier this year.
And in September, Cambridge-born Thomas Campbell, an expert in European tapestry, was appointed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
What these type of directors often emphasise is the need to make sure that scholarship and the permanent collection don't suffer at the expense of blockbuster exhibitions and expanding the museum.
Potts attacked both in a 2007 article for the Washington Post when he argued that the "mania for expansion" forces museums to be "populist… because that's the only way to survive the pressure of increased overheads and staffing".
University museums are particularly sensitive to accusations from their academic stakeholders of populism and dumbing down. But they are also aware that the public can perceive them as elitist. Finding the right balance between the two audiences can be difficult, but Potts sees no conflict.
"It might seem to be, on the surface, a difficult disparity, but in practice I don't see it as much of a problem," he says. "Whatever your audience, to me it makes sense to explain, even if only a few sentences, what it is about this painting and this artist, this subject that makes an object of particular interest. And that goes for a professor of art history just as much as for a member of the general public."
International working
Like many other directors of major art museums, Potts's career has taken him all over the world and he still travels a lot in his current job.
He was born in Australia, and also worked there as a museum director, and has had long stints working and studying in the UK and the US. He is now making himself at home again in the UK and work is currently being carried out on the director's flat at the museum so he can move in.
"I suppose I see Britain more as my home than anywhere now," he says. "I had such a long period in Oxford and London and was only back in Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria for four and a half years. America was longer, but still, if I had to say home was anywhere, I would say it was England."
Luckily, Potts likes travelling and the experience of working in different countries. "I have enjoyed being in different environments that have the link of all being art museums, although they each have their distinctive challenges and issues.
"And I think it keeps the institution fresh and a director fresh to be challenged in different ways and have different people involved. All of us go a little bit stale if we stay doing the same thing for too long."
Potts says he has not mapped out his career, and that anyone who tries to plan their next move in the museum world is fooling themselves: "90 per cent of it is the opportunities that come or don't come".
He is a specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient near east and the Mediterranean, but part of the appeal of museums is that it enables him to get work on areas where he has less knowledge.
"One of the great pleasures of being a museum director is that it allows you to be involved in all sorts of projects way beyond your field of expertise, so you are learning all the time, which to me is one of the tests of an attractive position; in fact probably the primary one."
The Fitzwilliam is an attractive place to be a museum director, particularly as the transformation from pigstye to palace was completed some time ago. For Potts, one of the challenges will be to make sure it is as much a people's palace as an academic one.
"I Turned it Into a Palace" Sir Sydney Cockerell and The Fitzwilliam Museum is at the Fitzwilliam Museum from 4 November 2008-17 March 2009. From the Land of the Golden Fleece ends on 4 January 2009
The challenges facing the museum's latest director, Timothy Potts, are less onerous. Potts, who arrived from the Kimbell Art Museum in the US in January this year, joined an institution that is by far the biggest of the eight museums run by the University of Cambridge.
The Fitzwilliam, which benefited from a recent £12m redevelopment under Potts's predecessor, Duncan Robinson, is now one of the UK's pre-eminent university museums, with more than half a million objects spread across a broad range of periods and disciplines.
But there are some parallels between Cockerell and Potts. Cockerell's time at the Fitzwilliam was marked by some important additions to the collection, such as Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia.
Potts arrived with a reputation for careful buying at the Kimbell, where he focused acquisitions on a small number of high quality purchases, including works by European artists such as Donatello as well as significant works from Asia and South America.
But even though he says acquisitions are a priority for him at the Fitzwilliam, he knows that funding is tricky in the UK.
"There is no question that there is more money in the US for acquisitions," Potts says. "The funding environment is certainly more challenging here but it can be done when really outstanding and important objects are available. Where we need to work harder is supplementing the public funds with private benefaction and support, which is traditionally much stronger in the United States."
Funding also affects the number of people working at the Fitzwilliam, something that Potts is concerned about. "The staffing is very tight," he says. "For the size of the collection, we have relatively few keepers, conservators, and people in education and development. In almost every department the staff is very trim so a lot is done by relatively few people."
Potts says another of his priorities is to develop the exhibitions programme and his contacts in the US have already led to the Fitzwilliam staging an exhibition of treasures from ancient Georgia.
From the Land of the Golden Fleece opened in October and comes to Cambridge as part of a world tour. The Fitzwilliam is the exhibition's only UK venue, and it is being shown alongside a display of ancient coins from the Black Sea, drawn largely from the museum's own collection.
From the Land of the Golden Fleece will be followed by Darwin's Eye, which will be the Fitzwilliam's contribution to the many activities taking place next year to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.
Curators as directors
Potts's emphasis on acquisitions and exhibitions probably comes from his background as a curator and academic and his appointment reflects a move by some art museums to recruit scholarly curators as directors.
They include Nicholas Penny, who started as a lecturer in art history and was the senior curator for sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington before joining the National Gallery as its director earlier this year.
And in September, Cambridge-born Thomas Campbell, an expert in European tapestry, was appointed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
What these type of directors often emphasise is the need to make sure that scholarship and the permanent collection don't suffer at the expense of blockbuster exhibitions and expanding the museum.
Potts attacked both in a 2007 article for the Washington Post when he argued that the "mania for expansion" forces museums to be "populist… because that's the only way to survive the pressure of increased overheads and staffing".
University museums are particularly sensitive to accusations from their academic stakeholders of populism and dumbing down. But they are also aware that the public can perceive them as elitist. Finding the right balance between the two audiences can be difficult, but Potts sees no conflict.
"It might seem to be, on the surface, a difficult disparity, but in practice I don't see it as much of a problem," he says. "Whatever your audience, to me it makes sense to explain, even if only a few sentences, what it is about this painting and this artist, this subject that makes an object of particular interest. And that goes for a professor of art history just as much as for a member of the general public."
International working
Like many other directors of major art museums, Potts's career has taken him all over the world and he still travels a lot in his current job.
He was born in Australia, and also worked there as a museum director, and has had long stints working and studying in the UK and the US. He is now making himself at home again in the UK and work is currently being carried out on the director's flat at the museum so he can move in.
"I suppose I see Britain more as my home than anywhere now," he says. "I had such a long period in Oxford and London and was only back in Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria for four and a half years. America was longer, but still, if I had to say home was anywhere, I would say it was England."
Luckily, Potts likes travelling and the experience of working in different countries. "I have enjoyed being in different environments that have the link of all being art museums, although they each have their distinctive challenges and issues.
"And I think it keeps the institution fresh and a director fresh to be challenged in different ways and have different people involved. All of us go a little bit stale if we stay doing the same thing for too long."
Potts says he has not mapped out his career, and that anyone who tries to plan their next move in the museum world is fooling themselves: "90 per cent of it is the opportunities that come or don't come".
He is a specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient near east and the Mediterranean, but part of the appeal of museums is that it enables him to get work on areas where he has less knowledge.
"One of the great pleasures of being a museum director is that it allows you to be involved in all sorts of projects way beyond your field of expertise, so you are learning all the time, which to me is one of the tests of an attractive position; in fact probably the primary one."
The Fitzwilliam is an attractive place to be a museum director, particularly as the transformation from pigstye to palace was completed some time ago. For Potts, one of the challenges will be to make sure it is as much a people's palace as an academic one.
"I Turned it Into a Palace" Sir Sydney Cockerell and The Fitzwilliam Museum is at the Fitzwilliam Museum from 4 November 2008-17 March 2009. From the Land of the Golden Fleece ends on 4 January 2009
