Report cites investment as key to dynamic collections
It is hoped that the report, which expresses concern for UK collecting, will help the sector to advocate for the support and funding to care for collections. By Caroline Parry
Increased investment in museums and their collections is essential to ensure collections are evolving and dynamic, as well as to retain essential curatorial expertise, according to a new report into the importance of collecting.
Why Collect?, by historian David Cannadine, was commissioned by the Art Fund and charity the Wolfson Foundation to mark 40 years of collaboration. The report, published in February, expresses “anxiety and concern” about the state of collecting in the UK.
It highlights that following a decade of cuts to public spending, museum funding fell by 13% in real terms from £829m in 2007 to £720m last year.
Cannadine writes: “The pressures and expectations placed on museums and galleries by both national and local government – to make more of their collections more available to more people, to increase the numbers and diversity of their audiences, to widen public access and social inclusion, to engage more fully with their local communities, to improve individual health and general wellbeing, to contribute to what is described as ‘place-making’ and to help promote the UK’s interests and influence overseas – have never been greater, more insistent or more unrelenting than they have become since 1997.”
A survey of 266 collecting institutions revealed that only half of respondents have a budget for collecting. Where it exists, it is rarely more than 1% of the overall spend.
Despite this, the report also found that nearly all of the institutions surveyed have added to their collections over the past five years, thanks to gifts and bequests.
Penny Bull, the senior programmes manager at the Art Fund, hopes the report will help the sector to advocate for the importance of collecting, of building dynamic collections and having the proper support to care for them.
“We are calling on the government to take action,” she says. “We hope that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport can use this report in its conversations with the Treasury.”
Transformative impact
She points to the case studies highlighted in the report where the acquisition of an object had a transformative impact on both the institution and the visiting public.
“Collections can play such a strong role in the wider agenda of contributing to people’s cultural lives and wellbeing,” says Bull. “We want to encourage more visitors and also to reach the widest range of visitors. But the objects they are coming to see need to have a resonance.”
Bull highlights Glasgow Museums, which acquired examples of Punjabi street art to engage more closely with the city’s multicultural communities. The acquisitions, which have been used to inspire several outreach programmes, have helped to attract visitors from the south Asian community.
She also emphasises the phenomenal public interest generated by the discovery and subsequent acquisition of the Staffordshire Hoard, a collection of 3,500 gold and silver items discovered by a metal detectorist in 2009, by Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent city councils.
The national and international importance of the collection sparked a swell of regional pride in the find, attracting 2.5 million visitors since 2009.
Meanwhile, Manchester Museum’s new policy of thematic collecting has led to the acquisition of a refugee’s lifejacket. The project was documented step-by-step and supported by blogs and filmed interviews – a new area of skills development for curators.
The Museums Association (MA) has launched Collections 2030, a major research project looking at the long-term purpose, use and management of museum collections.
The research will be guided by two main themes: the culture of collections – how collections can be used and what we think they are for: and infrastructure – what needs to be in place to make collections effective. It will build on recent reports such as the Museums Taskforce, Mendoza Review, Culture is Digital, and Why Collect?
Why Collect?, by historian David Cannadine, was commissioned by the Art Fund and charity the Wolfson Foundation to mark 40 years of collaboration. The report, published in February, expresses “anxiety and concern” about the state of collecting in the UK.
It highlights that following a decade of cuts to public spending, museum funding fell by 13% in real terms from £829m in 2007 to £720m last year.
Cannadine writes: “The pressures and expectations placed on museums and galleries by both national and local government – to make more of their collections more available to more people, to increase the numbers and diversity of their audiences, to widen public access and social inclusion, to engage more fully with their local communities, to improve individual health and general wellbeing, to contribute to what is described as ‘place-making’ and to help promote the UK’s interests and influence overseas – have never been greater, more insistent or more unrelenting than they have become since 1997.”
A survey of 266 collecting institutions revealed that only half of respondents have a budget for collecting. Where it exists, it is rarely more than 1% of the overall spend.
Despite this, the report also found that nearly all of the institutions surveyed have added to their collections over the past five years, thanks to gifts and bequests.
Penny Bull, the senior programmes manager at the Art Fund, hopes the report will help the sector to advocate for the importance of collecting, of building dynamic collections and having the proper support to care for them.
“We are calling on the government to take action,” she says. “We hope that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport can use this report in its conversations with the Treasury.”
Transformative impact
She points to the case studies highlighted in the report where the acquisition of an object had a transformative impact on both the institution and the visiting public.
“Collections can play such a strong role in the wider agenda of contributing to people’s cultural lives and wellbeing,” says Bull. “We want to encourage more visitors and also to reach the widest range of visitors. But the objects they are coming to see need to have a resonance.”
Bull highlights Glasgow Museums, which acquired examples of Punjabi street art to engage more closely with the city’s multicultural communities. The acquisitions, which have been used to inspire several outreach programmes, have helped to attract visitors from the south Asian community.
She also emphasises the phenomenal public interest generated by the discovery and subsequent acquisition of the Staffordshire Hoard, a collection of 3,500 gold and silver items discovered by a metal detectorist in 2009, by Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent city councils.
The national and international importance of the collection sparked a swell of regional pride in the find, attracting 2.5 million visitors since 2009.
Meanwhile, Manchester Museum’s new policy of thematic collecting has led to the acquisition of a refugee’s lifejacket. The project was documented step-by-step and supported by blogs and filmed interviews – a new area of skills development for curators.
The Museums Association (MA) has launched Collections 2030, a major research project looking at the long-term purpose, use and management of museum collections.
The research will be guided by two main themes: the culture of collections – how collections can be used and what we think they are for: and infrastructure – what needs to be in place to make collections effective. It will build on recent reports such as the Museums Taskforce, Mendoza Review, Culture is Digital, and Why Collect?