It's a bit like waiting for a bus. You hang around for ages hoping for a national strategy for museums in England to appear, and then an action plan and a review full of recommendations both turn up at once.
The review is a thorough assessment of Renaissance and makes wide-ranging recommendations for its future direction and management (see link below).
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, which commissioned the independent review, has responded by saying that it is already addressing shortcomings in its management of the scheme. Which is true to an extent; in the gap between the review panel's investigation and the report's publication there has been a significant amount of reorganisation and tightening up at the MLA, most of it for the better.
On the idea of scrapping the hubs and replacing them with core museums, the MLA cautiously says it will consult the sector and trial the idea in one region. The consultation is a good idea: getting rid of the hubs would be a major decision. But let's hope this is not an attempt to bury what could be a radical, and in some areas necessary, change.
As for a new national board to replace existing regional boards, the MLA says that it is not minded to do this. Which is a shame, because it may well have provided a solution to some of the governance problems highlighted in the report.
And if a new board was broad enough - pulling in national figures from outside museums, including politicians - it could prove invaluable in embedding Renaissance as a continuing strand of central government funding for regional museums.
And what about the Action Plan? It calls itself "a vision and strategic action plan for English museums" but in trying to be everything - a strategy, an advocacy document and a list of things to do - it ends up failing to be any of the above. Responses so far have ranged from bemusement to disappointment.
It may be difficult to get any sense out of the department for culture at the moment - political nerves are clearly getting frayed - but that's no excuse for a weak strategy that does not equal the sum of its disparate parts.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
The review is a thorough assessment of Renaissance and makes wide-ranging recommendations for its future direction and management (see link below).
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, which commissioned the independent review, has responded by saying that it is already addressing shortcomings in its management of the scheme. Which is true to an extent; in the gap between the review panel's investigation and the report's publication there has been a significant amount of reorganisation and tightening up at the MLA, most of it for the better.
On the idea of scrapping the hubs and replacing them with core museums, the MLA cautiously says it will consult the sector and trial the idea in one region. The consultation is a good idea: getting rid of the hubs would be a major decision. But let's hope this is not an attempt to bury what could be a radical, and in some areas necessary, change.
As for a new national board to replace existing regional boards, the MLA says that it is not minded to do this. Which is a shame, because it may well have provided a solution to some of the governance problems highlighted in the report.
And if a new board was broad enough - pulling in national figures from outside museums, including politicians - it could prove invaluable in embedding Renaissance as a continuing strand of central government funding for regional museums.
And what about the Action Plan? It calls itself "a vision and strategic action plan for English museums" but in trying to be everything - a strategy, an advocacy document and a list of things to do - it ends up failing to be any of the above. Responses so far have ranged from bemusement to disappointment.
It may be difficult to get any sense out of the department for culture at the moment - political nerves are clearly getting frayed - but that's no excuse for a weak strategy that does not equal the sum of its disparate parts.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
Links
Action on Renaissance, MJ News August 2009, p5
Action on Renaissance, MJ News August 2009, p5
