Linking art and science
I was delighted to see the profile of Sandra Kemp in December's issue, and hope it encourages readers to view her excellent show at the Science Museum. Maybe it will even enthuse other exhibition makers enough to experiment further with projects that mix scientific and artistic fare.
I was however a little surprised by comments attributed to Professor Kemp about her difficulties in convincing the Wellcome Trust to see the relationship between art and science in a new way.
Future Face, her first major exhibition, is a welcome addition to the series of shows the Trust has presented in this space, each prepared by different guest curators who have been encouraged to mix artefacts and ideas drawn from different disciplinary domains, linked through a common theme. Past shows have tackled the head, change and metamorphosis, self-help and pain.
Encouraged in part by the positive public and critical attention these exhibitions have received, the trust is now setting up a new public space in its old headquarters building on the Euston Road in London.
Comprising two permanent galleries, a temporary exhibition hall and a forum for performances, debates and workshops, we mean to provide a venue in which visitors can carry on exploring the cultural significance of health and medical science.
In it, we look forward to continuing our experimental approach to linking the realms of art and science.
Ken Arnold, head of public programmes, Wellcome Trust.
Wrong to say that galleries are dealers
As the deputy chairman of one of the British galleries participating in Collect at the V&A, I should like to endorse the conclusions of Jane Morris's article. However, I believe it is misleading to describe the exhibiting galleries as a whole as dealers.
The Bluecoat Display Centre, for example, is a non-profit making organisation, supported by the North West Arts Board, which displays and sells the work of leading craftworkers, mostly from the north-west. It acts more as an agent than a dealer, and, importantly, stages some10 exhibitions a year, most of which attract national publicity and respect.
Moreover, as a consequence of its particiption in a similar exhibition project in the US, SOFA, has achieved international recognition not only for itself, but for the British craftworkers it represents. Similar claims can be made for other exhibiting organisations at Collect.
Lionel Burman, Bluecoat Display Centre.
Only larger museums will survive
It is significant that the threatened museums mentioned in Small Change are in those regions that have been selected to take the lead in the 'hub' concept and whose museums are receiving large sums of government money. This seems to confirm that the renaissance in the regions will only benefit a small number of large museums.
If museums continue to emphasise the social benefits of their work, as they are encouraged to do by the government, there will be some short-term funding gains but at the expense of the profession itself - museums won't be able to fall back on the argument that they are a good thing in themselves.
If the social welfare case fails, as it shows signs of doing, there will be every excuse for the government to renege on its funding commitments.
Cameron Hawke-Smith, curator, Cambridge And County Folk Museum.
I was delighted to see the profile of Sandra Kemp in December's issue, and hope it encourages readers to view her excellent show at the Science Museum. Maybe it will even enthuse other exhibition makers enough to experiment further with projects that mix scientific and artistic fare.
I was however a little surprised by comments attributed to Professor Kemp about her difficulties in convincing the Wellcome Trust to see the relationship between art and science in a new way.
Future Face, her first major exhibition, is a welcome addition to the series of shows the Trust has presented in this space, each prepared by different guest curators who have been encouraged to mix artefacts and ideas drawn from different disciplinary domains, linked through a common theme. Past shows have tackled the head, change and metamorphosis, self-help and pain.
Encouraged in part by the positive public and critical attention these exhibitions have received, the trust is now setting up a new public space in its old headquarters building on the Euston Road in London.
Comprising two permanent galleries, a temporary exhibition hall and a forum for performances, debates and workshops, we mean to provide a venue in which visitors can carry on exploring the cultural significance of health and medical science.
In it, we look forward to continuing our experimental approach to linking the realms of art and science.
Ken Arnold, head of public programmes, Wellcome Trust.
Wrong to say that galleries are dealers
As the deputy chairman of one of the British galleries participating in Collect at the V&A, I should like to endorse the conclusions of Jane Morris's article. However, I believe it is misleading to describe the exhibiting galleries as a whole as dealers.
The Bluecoat Display Centre, for example, is a non-profit making organisation, supported by the North West Arts Board, which displays and sells the work of leading craftworkers, mostly from the north-west. It acts more as an agent than a dealer, and, importantly, stages some10 exhibitions a year, most of which attract national publicity and respect.
Moreover, as a consequence of its particiption in a similar exhibition project in the US, SOFA, has achieved international recognition not only for itself, but for the British craftworkers it represents. Similar claims can be made for other exhibiting organisations at Collect.
Lionel Burman, Bluecoat Display Centre.
Only larger museums will survive
It is significant that the threatened museums mentioned in Small Change are in those regions that have been selected to take the lead in the 'hub' concept and whose museums are receiving large sums of government money. This seems to confirm that the renaissance in the regions will only benefit a small number of large museums.
If museums continue to emphasise the social benefits of their work, as they are encouraged to do by the government, there will be some short-term funding gains but at the expense of the profession itself - museums won't be able to fall back on the argument that they are a good thing in themselves.
If the social welfare case fails, as it shows signs of doing, there will be every excuse for the government to renege on its funding commitments.
Cameron Hawke-Smith, curator, Cambridge And County Folk Museum.
