Striking a diverse balance
The premise of National Resistance (Museums Journal August 2004, p14) is that nationals commonly resist diversity. This is as implausible as it is unfair. The National Maritime Museum does not recognise Yolande Beckles' assessment of the situation.
From the top the NMM is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse, high-quality team with demographics that reflect our community and visitors (and incidentally, our collections and subjects). We are currently successful in striking a balance, but as a learning organisation we also recognise scope to do even better.
Accordingly, we are considering new ways to help extend our performance. However, our favoured partners are unlikely to include consultants whose marketing method is to publish intemperate judgements of potential customers.
Roy Clare, director of the National Maritime Museum
Shopping centres
Having written my MA museums studies dissertation on Retail Opportunities in the Museum Environment I read with interest the talkback article (Museums Journal September 2004, p19).
Museums are already competing for consumer interest so I don't have any problem with going 'out into the market'. It is also about using external displays for educational purposes. Such displays do not have to contain just low-value objects. The Rijksmuseum has an annexe at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and a permanent collection of ten Dutch Masters is sited there.
The use of tasteful up-market merchandise in off-site shops and display units in commercial centres can encourage visitors to come to the museum without the risk of damage to the 'real' artefacts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has 20 Met Stores in commercial locations in the US, and a further 13 around the world.
The stunning merchandise in the Grenville shop in the British Museum shows just how well the collection and museum themes can be translated into retail opportunities.
Jerry Symonds, senior internal auditor, Historic Royal Palaces
Developing international relations
A big hurrah to the Museums Association (MA) for acknowledging the importance of adopting an international attitude to museum work.
Two of the four major groups of sessions at the MA conference in Edinburgh looked at the issue of national identity versus globalisation.
Delegates had the opportunity to learn about current issues in South African museums and redevelopment of the Raja Kelkar Museum in Pune, India.
An entertaining keynote speech was devoted to how to make international partnerships work and ICOM UK made a valuable contribution on museums in the new European member states.
Most refreshing of all was the increased presence of foreign delegates, most of them invited by the Tourism and Heritage Export Group. Their willingness to participate showed the potential the MA has to break down barriers.
Anita van Mil, international museum consultant, Connecting Museums
The Gulbenkian Prize
The article on the Gulbenkian Prize (Museums Journal September 2004 p12) was a thoughtful piece on the challenge of establishing a media profile for a museum prize.
The founders of the prize - the Campaign for Museums, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, National Heritage, and its generous principal sponsor, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, have never doubted that the prize would be 'a marathon, not a sprint'. To judge a track record of two years against the 35- and 20-year histories of the Man Booker and Turner Prize is premature.
Comparison will always be difficult because the Gulbenkian Prize is about the achievements of institutions which offer fewer media opportunities for highlighting off-the-wall personalities and cross-dressing (though we do keep an open mind).
With every succeeding year we are building on experience of what works for the media but the trustees remain confident that offering the largest arts prize in the UK provides museums and galleries with a huge opportunity to participate in something that benefits all who take part, not only the winner.
Rosemary Ewles, administrator, the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year
Designation going strong
In your article on the three National Waterways Museums, Sam Mullins, the chairman of the Association of Independent Museums, comments: 'The Designation Challenge Fund has disappeared, which was intended to provide a safeguard for non-national museums with national collections,' (Museums Journal October 2004, p5).
It is not the case that the DCF has finished. £4m in funding is supporting nearly 40 projects running up until March 2006. Designation recognises the most outstanding collections in England, and the aim of DCF funding is to promote excellence and raise standards in those collections.
Through Renaissance, the Museums, Libraries and Archives council is committed to safeguarding England's outstanding collections. We hope that, with continued support from central government, we will be able to sustain that commitment.
Yvette Burrows, designation advisor, MLA
In defence of Diversify
When the Museums Association first introduced the Diversify scheme in 1999, a few people voiced concerns about the use of positive action to address the under-representation of ethnic minority people working in the sector.
Since then, a tremendous amount has been done to increase awareness of the scheme. It is therefore rather disheartening, some five years on, to read Claire Reed's letter (Museums Journal October 2004, p15).
Firstly, it is important to address a serious inaccuracy in the letter. The range of initiatives under the umbrella of the Diversify scheme are based not on positive discrimination (which is illegal), but rather on positive action which is permitted under Section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976.
The purpose of Diversify is not to give individuals 'a leg up into a museum career'. The primary motivation behind the scheme has always been to ensure museums are relevant to diverse audiences, equipped to achieve their goals, committed to equal opportunities and able to meaningfully engage with their audiences.
Richard Sandell, deputy head of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
Harewood House
It is a great shame that the article that rightly celebrates the work of Ruth Dass (Museums Journal October 2004, p18) should contain factual inaccuracies regarding the activities of Harewood House Trust in relation to exploring and interpreting its historic links with the West Indies and the sugar trade.
In 1998, the trust commissioned a major piece of research into clarifying these links. That research programme was used as the basis of the BBC House Detectives programme and was not, as you suggest, 'discovered' by them.
Equally, to inform our research programme, links with Barbados Museum were set firmly in place before the television series. A year later, the trust hosted the Vision 2003 conference at Harewood House.
The article refers to Harewood as the venue of the Vision 2003 conference. Vision 2003 emerged out of a very close collaboration between Harewood House Trust and Interculture, with much financial support from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund, under Ruth's visionary artistic direction.
The trust itself invested considerable staff time, gave accommodation and other practical and financial support to make the conference viable.
Vision 2003 was always seen as a step on the road to presenting these 'hidden histories' to a wider public. One of the legacies of the conference is our education and interpretive work with RJC dance, which ran a week-long workshop at Harewood this summer and with whom the trust is working on a three-year programme to culminate in events in 2007.
A summer festival, web publication of the whole of the Lascelles West Indies-related archive, and other objectives, are actively being planned for 2007.
Ironically, just the week before publication of the article, Ruth and I had met at Harewood to talk through in detail Harewood's programmes and events in relation to 2007. Ruth remains a key person in informing the trust's plan, a challenging and informed advisor whose vision and energy are unrivalled.
Clearly there is much work still to be done here. However, it is not helpful to have what has already been done, or is underway, misrepresented in this way.
Terry Suthers, director and CEO, Harewood House Trust
Matt Barnard writes: The article was not intended to misrepresent Harewood House. The trust was credited with initiating the Vision 2003 conference and its annual report was quoted saying that efforts following the conference to widen its audience must continue and be protected from any budget cuts. I am sorry that a misunderstanding led me to incorrectly believe that Harewood House had not been in contact with the Barbados Museum before the conference. I made several attempts to contact Harewood House, unfortunately with no success.
The premise of National Resistance (Museums Journal August 2004, p14) is that nationals commonly resist diversity. This is as implausible as it is unfair. The National Maritime Museum does not recognise Yolande Beckles' assessment of the situation.
From the top the NMM is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse, high-quality team with demographics that reflect our community and visitors (and incidentally, our collections and subjects). We are currently successful in striking a balance, but as a learning organisation we also recognise scope to do even better.
Accordingly, we are considering new ways to help extend our performance. However, our favoured partners are unlikely to include consultants whose marketing method is to publish intemperate judgements of potential customers.
Roy Clare, director of the National Maritime Museum
Shopping centres
Having written my MA museums studies dissertation on Retail Opportunities in the Museum Environment I read with interest the talkback article (Museums Journal September 2004, p19).
Museums are already competing for consumer interest so I don't have any problem with going 'out into the market'. It is also about using external displays for educational purposes. Such displays do not have to contain just low-value objects. The Rijksmuseum has an annexe at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and a permanent collection of ten Dutch Masters is sited there.
The use of tasteful up-market merchandise in off-site shops and display units in commercial centres can encourage visitors to come to the museum without the risk of damage to the 'real' artefacts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has 20 Met Stores in commercial locations in the US, and a further 13 around the world.
The stunning merchandise in the Grenville shop in the British Museum shows just how well the collection and museum themes can be translated into retail opportunities.
Jerry Symonds, senior internal auditor, Historic Royal Palaces
Developing international relations
A big hurrah to the Museums Association (MA) for acknowledging the importance of adopting an international attitude to museum work.
Two of the four major groups of sessions at the MA conference in Edinburgh looked at the issue of national identity versus globalisation.
Delegates had the opportunity to learn about current issues in South African museums and redevelopment of the Raja Kelkar Museum in Pune, India.
An entertaining keynote speech was devoted to how to make international partnerships work and ICOM UK made a valuable contribution on museums in the new European member states.
Most refreshing of all was the increased presence of foreign delegates, most of them invited by the Tourism and Heritage Export Group. Their willingness to participate showed the potential the MA has to break down barriers.
Anita van Mil, international museum consultant, Connecting Museums
The Gulbenkian Prize
The article on the Gulbenkian Prize (Museums Journal September 2004 p12) was a thoughtful piece on the challenge of establishing a media profile for a museum prize.
The founders of the prize - the Campaign for Museums, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, National Heritage, and its generous principal sponsor, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, have never doubted that the prize would be 'a marathon, not a sprint'. To judge a track record of two years against the 35- and 20-year histories of the Man Booker and Turner Prize is premature.
Comparison will always be difficult because the Gulbenkian Prize is about the achievements of institutions which offer fewer media opportunities for highlighting off-the-wall personalities and cross-dressing (though we do keep an open mind).
With every succeeding year we are building on experience of what works for the media but the trustees remain confident that offering the largest arts prize in the UK provides museums and galleries with a huge opportunity to participate in something that benefits all who take part, not only the winner.
Rosemary Ewles, administrator, the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year
Designation going strong
In your article on the three National Waterways Museums, Sam Mullins, the chairman of the Association of Independent Museums, comments: 'The Designation Challenge Fund has disappeared, which was intended to provide a safeguard for non-national museums with national collections,' (Museums Journal October 2004, p5).
It is not the case that the DCF has finished. £4m in funding is supporting nearly 40 projects running up until March 2006. Designation recognises the most outstanding collections in England, and the aim of DCF funding is to promote excellence and raise standards in those collections.
Through Renaissance, the Museums, Libraries and Archives council is committed to safeguarding England's outstanding collections. We hope that, with continued support from central government, we will be able to sustain that commitment.
Yvette Burrows, designation advisor, MLA
In defence of Diversify
When the Museums Association first introduced the Diversify scheme in 1999, a few people voiced concerns about the use of positive action to address the under-representation of ethnic minority people working in the sector.
Since then, a tremendous amount has been done to increase awareness of the scheme. It is therefore rather disheartening, some five years on, to read Claire Reed's letter (Museums Journal October 2004, p15).
Firstly, it is important to address a serious inaccuracy in the letter. The range of initiatives under the umbrella of the Diversify scheme are based not on positive discrimination (which is illegal), but rather on positive action which is permitted under Section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976.
The purpose of Diversify is not to give individuals 'a leg up into a museum career'. The primary motivation behind the scheme has always been to ensure museums are relevant to diverse audiences, equipped to achieve their goals, committed to equal opportunities and able to meaningfully engage with their audiences.
Richard Sandell, deputy head of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
Harewood House
It is a great shame that the article that rightly celebrates the work of Ruth Dass (Museums Journal October 2004, p18) should contain factual inaccuracies regarding the activities of Harewood House Trust in relation to exploring and interpreting its historic links with the West Indies and the sugar trade.
In 1998, the trust commissioned a major piece of research into clarifying these links. That research programme was used as the basis of the BBC House Detectives programme and was not, as you suggest, 'discovered' by them.
Equally, to inform our research programme, links with Barbados Museum were set firmly in place before the television series. A year later, the trust hosted the Vision 2003 conference at Harewood House.
The article refers to Harewood as the venue of the Vision 2003 conference. Vision 2003 emerged out of a very close collaboration between Harewood House Trust and Interculture, with much financial support from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund, under Ruth's visionary artistic direction.
The trust itself invested considerable staff time, gave accommodation and other practical and financial support to make the conference viable.
Vision 2003 was always seen as a step on the road to presenting these 'hidden histories' to a wider public. One of the legacies of the conference is our education and interpretive work with RJC dance, which ran a week-long workshop at Harewood this summer and with whom the trust is working on a three-year programme to culminate in events in 2007.
A summer festival, web publication of the whole of the Lascelles West Indies-related archive, and other objectives, are actively being planned for 2007.
Ironically, just the week before publication of the article, Ruth and I had met at Harewood to talk through in detail Harewood's programmes and events in relation to 2007. Ruth remains a key person in informing the trust's plan, a challenging and informed advisor whose vision and energy are unrivalled.
Clearly there is much work still to be done here. However, it is not helpful to have what has already been done, or is underway, misrepresented in this way.
Terry Suthers, director and CEO, Harewood House Trust
Matt Barnard writes: The article was not intended to misrepresent Harewood House. The trust was credited with initiating the Vision 2003 conference and its annual report was quoted saying that efforts following the conference to widen its audience must continue and be protected from any budget cuts. I am sorry that a misunderstanding led me to incorrectly believe that Harewood House had not been in contact with the Barbados Museum before the conference. I made several attempts to contact Harewood House, unfortunately with no success.
