'It's all right. It's OK. Doesn't really matter if you're old and grey… listen to what I say!' The words are those of the theme tune for that delightful television series New Tricks, in which elderly policemen crack seemingly irresolvable cases.
But a recent Museums Association conference in London, subtitled museums and older people, highlighted that the involvement of the elderly lies low on museum agendas.
As a retired curator, I retain some knowledge of museums. Meanwhile, my experience of old age is expanding exponentially. The lead sentence of the conference publicity material did rankle initially.
'What development work can museums do to attract the growing population of more active and affluent over 50s?' How patronising is this? Would anybody dare to suggest that a similar targeting should apply to children or ethnic groups? Should museums welcome only bourgeois blazer-clad schoolchildren or well-spoken and respectful immigrants?
The conference itself was neatly divided between consultants and museum practitioners. The former bombarded us with statistics about the numbers, needs and nature of the elderly. But among all the material available from government and other agencies such as Age Concern, the topic of museums earns only the briefest and blandest of mentions.
Take the example of the University of the Third Age (U3A). It has 580 self-educating and self-governing groups across the UK. The one I belong to has more than 350 members studying a range of intellectual and social topics and yet it is the only one in the north of England to have a museum visiting group.
Nationally, there is a dedicated network of more than 40 advisory coordinators who cover languages, literature, politics and philosophy via such esoteric pursuits as space exploration, handbell ringing and folk dance. But there isn't one for museums. And only a few of the conference delegates had heard of the U3A; fewer still had any contact.
There is a similar near-vacuum in references to old people in museum literature. A search of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's website yields virtually nothing. When it comes to learning and access, I am told: 'There is unlikely to be any research going on that is not following a policy priority… we hope analysis of the data from the DCMS's Taking Part survey… might, later this year, yield interesting insights into the relationship between increasing age and museum attendance.'
Some museums are undertaking projects on behalf of old people. At Sutton House in Hackney, the National Trust has created an in-house drop-in for over 55s and a number of innovative intergenerational projects. Good Times is an excellent project run by the Dulwich Picture Gallery that reaches out to older isolated groups within the local community. But these appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
Karen Thomas, an education intern at the Firstsite gallery in Colchester, has researched the subject of museums and learning for older people. She acknowledges that much valuable work has been done, but concludes that, although museums proudly regard themselves as communicators 'too few museums consider targeted provisions for older people a priority or even a necessity'.
Dare I suggest a reason for this? All the examples above, praiseworthy though they are, involve museums doing things for or to older people. Might not a revolutionary way forward be to ask what older people might do for museums?
Far too often museum staff assume that working with older people means reminiscence and oral history. Curators and marketeers are seriously out of touch if they believe that the old wish to live in a perpetual state of anecdotage. Reminiscence work may be a valuable clinical tool in working with those combating senility. For too many museums, it seems to be the only door of entry.
The fault with this approach is that it obscures the purpose of museums; to show and explain exciting real artefacts to all visitors. Over-emphasis on oral history reaffirms stereotypes of how society invites behaviour. Rosina Tucker, the civil rights activist, when asked at the age of 104, 'What was it like in your day?', rightly retorted: 'My day? This is my day!'
Museums need older people. My U3A group makes more than a dozen museum visits a year, mostly within a day's travel of home, but also to London, Edinburgh and York. Next year, we have been invited to visit museums in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Budapest.
For the past ten years, many of us have been attending courses run locally by the Workers' Education Association and others, but these have been emasculated by budget cuts. There are folk eager to take up courses, workshops and lectures in museums, but do they exist? And if they do, have you told us about them?
As I visit museums, I am struck by tight budgets and the diminishing amount of time for curatorial thought, reading and research. Don't be deceived by the popular belief that the old are incompetent - we old dogs have learned a whole range of new tricks.
More than 70 per cent of my fellow members of Tynedale U3A have email addresses. Invite in people of my generation to help with cataloguing, proofreading, guiding and basic research. We could even run your reminiscence projects for you.
Peter Lewis is a past director of Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum
But a recent Museums Association conference in London, subtitled museums and older people, highlighted that the involvement of the elderly lies low on museum agendas.
As a retired curator, I retain some knowledge of museums. Meanwhile, my experience of old age is expanding exponentially. The lead sentence of the conference publicity material did rankle initially.
'What development work can museums do to attract the growing population of more active and affluent over 50s?' How patronising is this? Would anybody dare to suggest that a similar targeting should apply to children or ethnic groups? Should museums welcome only bourgeois blazer-clad schoolchildren or well-spoken and respectful immigrants?
The conference itself was neatly divided between consultants and museum practitioners. The former bombarded us with statistics about the numbers, needs and nature of the elderly. But among all the material available from government and other agencies such as Age Concern, the topic of museums earns only the briefest and blandest of mentions.
Take the example of the University of the Third Age (U3A). It has 580 self-educating and self-governing groups across the UK. The one I belong to has more than 350 members studying a range of intellectual and social topics and yet it is the only one in the north of England to have a museum visiting group.
Nationally, there is a dedicated network of more than 40 advisory coordinators who cover languages, literature, politics and philosophy via such esoteric pursuits as space exploration, handbell ringing and folk dance. But there isn't one for museums. And only a few of the conference delegates had heard of the U3A; fewer still had any contact.
There is a similar near-vacuum in references to old people in museum literature. A search of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's website yields virtually nothing. When it comes to learning and access, I am told: 'There is unlikely to be any research going on that is not following a policy priority… we hope analysis of the data from the DCMS's Taking Part survey… might, later this year, yield interesting insights into the relationship between increasing age and museum attendance.'
Some museums are undertaking projects on behalf of old people. At Sutton House in Hackney, the National Trust has created an in-house drop-in for over 55s and a number of innovative intergenerational projects. Good Times is an excellent project run by the Dulwich Picture Gallery that reaches out to older isolated groups within the local community. But these appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
Karen Thomas, an education intern at the Firstsite gallery in Colchester, has researched the subject of museums and learning for older people. She acknowledges that much valuable work has been done, but concludes that, although museums proudly regard themselves as communicators 'too few museums consider targeted provisions for older people a priority or even a necessity'.
Dare I suggest a reason for this? All the examples above, praiseworthy though they are, involve museums doing things for or to older people. Might not a revolutionary way forward be to ask what older people might do for museums?
Far too often museum staff assume that working with older people means reminiscence and oral history. Curators and marketeers are seriously out of touch if they believe that the old wish to live in a perpetual state of anecdotage. Reminiscence work may be a valuable clinical tool in working with those combating senility. For too many museums, it seems to be the only door of entry.
The fault with this approach is that it obscures the purpose of museums; to show and explain exciting real artefacts to all visitors. Over-emphasis on oral history reaffirms stereotypes of how society invites behaviour. Rosina Tucker, the civil rights activist, when asked at the age of 104, 'What was it like in your day?', rightly retorted: 'My day? This is my day!'
Museums need older people. My U3A group makes more than a dozen museum visits a year, mostly within a day's travel of home, but also to London, Edinburgh and York. Next year, we have been invited to visit museums in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Budapest.
For the past ten years, many of us have been attending courses run locally by the Workers' Education Association and others, but these have been emasculated by budget cuts. There are folk eager to take up courses, workshops and lectures in museums, but do they exist? And if they do, have you told us about them?
As I visit museums, I am struck by tight budgets and the diminishing amount of time for curatorial thought, reading and research. Don't be deceived by the popular belief that the old are incompetent - we old dogs have learned a whole range of new tricks.
More than 70 per cent of my fellow members of Tynedale U3A have email addresses. Invite in people of my generation to help with cataloguing, proofreading, guiding and basic research. We could even run your reminiscence projects for you.
Peter Lewis is a past director of Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum
