The wheels on the merc go round and round...
Last month Kate Bull drew a comparison between the shops in some museums and those at Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands and Stuttgart. Museum retail came off worse, in part because Bull rather unfairly picked on museums in Rome, not widely regarded as leaders in the customer-friendliness stakes.
I don't know about Stuttgart, but the shop at Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands wasn't too impressive on my recent visit. Several special lines seemed to have been unpopular with the punters as they were reduced in price. There was far less choice, far less imaginative products and at far fewer price points than in the shops at, say, the Victoria and Albert Museum or the British Museum.
Seduced by fantasies of owning a politically incorrect car (in the real life, mine's an X-reg Corsa), I did for a moment fancy a Mercedes-branded sweater, but even in the sale it was out of my price range.
Uncharacteristically, my children found nothing that appealed to them in the shop - normally they just want to spend, spend, spend my money. (If the shop had been on-the-ball enough to sell it, we would have bought a "Mercedes in Training" sticker for the Corsa.)
What the kids - and their parents - did enjoy about Mercedes-Benz World was not the 'imaginative surroundings' praised by Bull, but the simple fact that you could climb inside all the cars, (except for the really souped-up ones that sell for more than £100,000).
You don't need much interpretation when you can sit in the leather seats and prod the buttons of the sat nav. (Terrifyingly, the one we liked best from the inside, was the most planet unfriendly, vulgar, gas guzzling 4x4 you could imagine…)
Better still, if you are feeling flush, you can pay for a drive on a skid pan, or a child's first driving lesson. And the catering was good. But the shop was undoubtedly dull.
The biggest lesson Mercedes-Benz World has for museums is how good it is to be able to touch things and experience them in motion. As a comedian said during a performance at our local pub the other night: 'London's Transport Museum is such a realistic presentation of transport in London and the South East - nothing moves!'
Maurice Davies, deputy director, Museums Association
Judge for yourself
Felicity Heywood was a little mean about Liverpool's new International Slavery Museum (Museums Journal August 2007, p18). The museum will be a whole lot more than "in essence, an updated version of the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery".
It covers far more ground, with a much bigger international vision. It addresses many issues untouched by the old gallery, notably those of the complex and fundamental legacies of the slave trade, including racism. I hope people will make up their own mind and will keep their eyes on how phase two shapes up as a research and education centre. I believe the International Slavery Museum will come to be seen as a landmark in museum development.
Also, Richard Benjamin is not "the first visible minority person on the senior management team at National Museums Liverpool (NML)". Prior to Richard's appointment, we had Paul Khan (director of visitor services) and now we also have James Hernandez (head of trusts, foundations and public sector giving).
Reyahn King has just started at NML as the director of art galleries. It would be true to say that three years ago we had no "visible minority people" on the senior team. This was unacceptable and we have happily been able to address it.
Lastly, I can absolutely refute the rumour that Richard "came under fire" from his bosses over his comments about the display of our Tibetan robe.
On the contrary, Richard's view mirrors that of several of us at NML who feel that the World Cultures Gallery at World Museum Liverpool - while aesthetically beautiful and relatively new, could do much more to address a host of political, cultural and ethnicity issues around British Imperialism, the way such museum collections were displayed in the 19th century, and the display of such items. I am sure that we will address this in time.
David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool
We love you Leeds
Sharon Heal mentions (Museums Journal September 2007, p44), that Leeds Museums and Galleries has had a bit of a bumpy ride over the past few years. I am concerned about the negative or mixed impressions that readers may be left with.
High quality service delivery to visitors continues regardless. For example, in addition to the good news about Leeds Art Gallery's refurbishment, in the past 12 months my curatorial colleagues at Temple Newsam House have raised the best part of £300,000 towards aiding service delivery, specifically exhibitions, acquisitions, display development and interpretation.
This is no mean feat and judging by the overwhelmingly positive comments from visitors they are clearly enjoying their experience at Temple Newsam House.
Ian Fraser, conservator, Leeds Museums and Galleries
A bitter pill to swallow
My colleagues and I were interested to read Penny Ritchie Calder's review of the Wellcome Trust Galleries (Museums Journal August 2007, p26). How disappointing, however, to see that the planning team for the project found they could not benefit from the advice of other museums specialising in the subject area.
The Science Museum aside, there are more than 300 museums in the UK holding medical collections, not least among them the Thackray Museum. Based in Leeds, we attract 75,000 visitors a year (compared with a projected 100,000 for a museum in central London).
We are the largest medical museum outside of London. It does not take much research to find out that the Thackray Museum is leading the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's (MLA) Medical and Healthcare subject specialist network of more than 100 museums, including the 21 Museums of Health and Medicine in London alone.
In short, the medical museums and collections are out there. If asked, all of us would have been happy to have provided feedback on the planned Wellcome exhibition and given guidance about the powerful role education can play in exhibitions.
Almut Grüner, chief executive, Thackray Museum, Leeds
Don't leave me this way
Katrina Burroughs rightly says: "More power resides with the museum than with the late donor's wishes" (Museums Journal August 2007, p22).
She says that the Courtauld Institute has successfully argued that the limitations placed by Count Seilern on his bequest to it are "no longer in the interests of the charity". What about the interests of the donor? Either the conditions of a gift should be adhered to, or the gift should be returned?
If donors are to be reassured, museums should make accessible the full terms on which at least their major gifts have been received; and any schemes to modify those terms should be submitted to the Charity Commission or attorney general, and their decisions should be open to scrutiny.
Selby Whittingham, secretary-general, Donor Watch
Constructing meaning
In a recent BBC programme, National Treasures, Larry Phillips argued that it is possible to value culture on a range of parameters, weighted according to their importance. But you also need an inclusive way to decide on what the parameters are, otherwise this methodology only quantifies existing prejudices. There is a way: it's called Repertory Grids and it's simple.
Take ten blank cards. Write one word (eg bingo, opera, dog racing) on each card. Shuffle the pack and deal the cards out in pairs. Ask each interviewee what each pair has in common and what differentiates them. The answer are called "constructs". Shuffle the pack and deal again then repeat until no new constructs emerge.
This methodology elicits constructs without any prompting from your own frame of reference. Even the choice of words can be compiled from the floor. Then in a separate exercise, you can ask people to score projects against these constructs.
It's a simple and well-established methodology and I'm surprised that it isn't more widely used in the heritage sector. I'd be glad to hear from any museum interested in taking part in a pilot.
Wendy Sudbury, director, Cambridge Management Group
Write to: the editor, Museums Journal, 24 Calvin Street, London E1 6NW
Email: journal@museumsassociation.org
Last month Kate Bull drew a comparison between the shops in some museums and those at Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands and Stuttgart. Museum retail came off worse, in part because Bull rather unfairly picked on museums in Rome, not widely regarded as leaders in the customer-friendliness stakes.
I don't know about Stuttgart, but the shop at Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands wasn't too impressive on my recent visit. Several special lines seemed to have been unpopular with the punters as they were reduced in price. There was far less choice, far less imaginative products and at far fewer price points than in the shops at, say, the Victoria and Albert Museum or the British Museum.
Seduced by fantasies of owning a politically incorrect car (in the real life, mine's an X-reg Corsa), I did for a moment fancy a Mercedes-branded sweater, but even in the sale it was out of my price range.
Uncharacteristically, my children found nothing that appealed to them in the shop - normally they just want to spend, spend, spend my money. (If the shop had been on-the-ball enough to sell it, we would have bought a "Mercedes in Training" sticker for the Corsa.)
What the kids - and their parents - did enjoy about Mercedes-Benz World was not the 'imaginative surroundings' praised by Bull, but the simple fact that you could climb inside all the cars, (except for the really souped-up ones that sell for more than £100,000).
You don't need much interpretation when you can sit in the leather seats and prod the buttons of the sat nav. (Terrifyingly, the one we liked best from the inside, was the most planet unfriendly, vulgar, gas guzzling 4x4 you could imagine…)
Better still, if you are feeling flush, you can pay for a drive on a skid pan, or a child's first driving lesson. And the catering was good. But the shop was undoubtedly dull.
The biggest lesson Mercedes-Benz World has for museums is how good it is to be able to touch things and experience them in motion. As a comedian said during a performance at our local pub the other night: 'London's Transport Museum is such a realistic presentation of transport in London and the South East - nothing moves!'
Maurice Davies, deputy director, Museums Association
Judge for yourself
Felicity Heywood was a little mean about Liverpool's new International Slavery Museum (Museums Journal August 2007, p18). The museum will be a whole lot more than "in essence, an updated version of the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery".
It covers far more ground, with a much bigger international vision. It addresses many issues untouched by the old gallery, notably those of the complex and fundamental legacies of the slave trade, including racism. I hope people will make up their own mind and will keep their eyes on how phase two shapes up as a research and education centre. I believe the International Slavery Museum will come to be seen as a landmark in museum development.
Also, Richard Benjamin is not "the first visible minority person on the senior management team at National Museums Liverpool (NML)". Prior to Richard's appointment, we had Paul Khan (director of visitor services) and now we also have James Hernandez (head of trusts, foundations and public sector giving).
Reyahn King has just started at NML as the director of art galleries. It would be true to say that three years ago we had no "visible minority people" on the senior team. This was unacceptable and we have happily been able to address it.
Lastly, I can absolutely refute the rumour that Richard "came under fire" from his bosses over his comments about the display of our Tibetan robe.
On the contrary, Richard's view mirrors that of several of us at NML who feel that the World Cultures Gallery at World Museum Liverpool - while aesthetically beautiful and relatively new, could do much more to address a host of political, cultural and ethnicity issues around British Imperialism, the way such museum collections were displayed in the 19th century, and the display of such items. I am sure that we will address this in time.
David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool
We love you Leeds
Sharon Heal mentions (Museums Journal September 2007, p44), that Leeds Museums and Galleries has had a bit of a bumpy ride over the past few years. I am concerned about the negative or mixed impressions that readers may be left with.
High quality service delivery to visitors continues regardless. For example, in addition to the good news about Leeds Art Gallery's refurbishment, in the past 12 months my curatorial colleagues at Temple Newsam House have raised the best part of £300,000 towards aiding service delivery, specifically exhibitions, acquisitions, display development and interpretation.
This is no mean feat and judging by the overwhelmingly positive comments from visitors they are clearly enjoying their experience at Temple Newsam House.
Ian Fraser, conservator, Leeds Museums and Galleries
A bitter pill to swallow
My colleagues and I were interested to read Penny Ritchie Calder's review of the Wellcome Trust Galleries (Museums Journal August 2007, p26). How disappointing, however, to see that the planning team for the project found they could not benefit from the advice of other museums specialising in the subject area.
The Science Museum aside, there are more than 300 museums in the UK holding medical collections, not least among them the Thackray Museum. Based in Leeds, we attract 75,000 visitors a year (compared with a projected 100,000 for a museum in central London).
We are the largest medical museum outside of London. It does not take much research to find out that the Thackray Museum is leading the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's (MLA) Medical and Healthcare subject specialist network of more than 100 museums, including the 21 Museums of Health and Medicine in London alone.
In short, the medical museums and collections are out there. If asked, all of us would have been happy to have provided feedback on the planned Wellcome exhibition and given guidance about the powerful role education can play in exhibitions.
Almut Grüner, chief executive, Thackray Museum, Leeds
Don't leave me this way
Katrina Burroughs rightly says: "More power resides with the museum than with the late donor's wishes" (Museums Journal August 2007, p22).
She says that the Courtauld Institute has successfully argued that the limitations placed by Count Seilern on his bequest to it are "no longer in the interests of the charity". What about the interests of the donor? Either the conditions of a gift should be adhered to, or the gift should be returned?
If donors are to be reassured, museums should make accessible the full terms on which at least their major gifts have been received; and any schemes to modify those terms should be submitted to the Charity Commission or attorney general, and their decisions should be open to scrutiny.
Selby Whittingham, secretary-general, Donor Watch
Constructing meaning
In a recent BBC programme, National Treasures, Larry Phillips argued that it is possible to value culture on a range of parameters, weighted according to their importance. But you also need an inclusive way to decide on what the parameters are, otherwise this methodology only quantifies existing prejudices. There is a way: it's called Repertory Grids and it's simple.
Take ten blank cards. Write one word (eg bingo, opera, dog racing) on each card. Shuffle the pack and deal the cards out in pairs. Ask each interviewee what each pair has in common and what differentiates them. The answer are called "constructs". Shuffle the pack and deal again then repeat until no new constructs emerge.
This methodology elicits constructs without any prompting from your own frame of reference. Even the choice of words can be compiled from the floor. Then in a separate exercise, you can ask people to score projects against these constructs.
It's a simple and well-established methodology and I'm surprised that it isn't more widely used in the heritage sector. I'd be glad to hear from any museum interested in taking part in a pilot.
Wendy Sudbury, director, Cambridge Management Group
Write to: the editor, Museums Journal, 24 Calvin Street, London E1 6NW
Email: journal@museumsassociation.org
