How many times lately have you left a museum feeling motivated, disturbed, moved and challenged? How many shows have you been to that are cheeky, subversive, thoughtful and original?
It's a big ask but Bristol Museum and Art Gallery pulled off all of the above with its Banksy show, which finished last month.
If visitor numbers are anything to go by, the show has been a runaway success. In the first two months, 270,000 people had seen it - compared with 310,000 for the whole museum last year. Visitors queued for up to four hours to get in.
But it's not just the figures that are impressive; the whole phenomenon bears examination. The artist took over the entire museum, so although there were two dedicated display areas, his work was also dotted throughout the collections.
Visitors enjoyed a wonderful game of "Spot the Banksy", while for some of the collections that have loitered unseen in the nether regions of the museum, it was probably the most concentrated public attention they have received.
The normal rules of museum visiting either didn't apply or were ignored. Most visitors were snapping away on their mobile phone or camera, so it's no surprise that there are already more than 20,000 images from the exhibition on photo-sharing website Flickr. And it was clear from the queues that the missing generation for museums - teenagers - went to this show in droves.
The ultimate lesson is about control. Are museum curators and directors brave enough to let go a little?
Of course, there have been a few disgruntled regulars complaining about not being able to see the Assyrian reliefs. The staff probably had a few qualms about the artist's political views and normal medium - hence the rather po-faced disclaimer at the beginning of the show saying that the museum doesn't condone illegal activity and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the staff or trustees. But they still went for it - and look how they have been repaid.
The exhibition's title was Banksy versus Bristol Museum - on this occasion the museum, and the public, are the winners.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
It's a big ask but Bristol Museum and Art Gallery pulled off all of the above with its Banksy show, which finished last month.
If visitor numbers are anything to go by, the show has been a runaway success. In the first two months, 270,000 people had seen it - compared with 310,000 for the whole museum last year. Visitors queued for up to four hours to get in.
But it's not just the figures that are impressive; the whole phenomenon bears examination. The artist took over the entire museum, so although there were two dedicated display areas, his work was also dotted throughout the collections.
Visitors enjoyed a wonderful game of "Spot the Banksy", while for some of the collections that have loitered unseen in the nether regions of the museum, it was probably the most concentrated public attention they have received.
The normal rules of museum visiting either didn't apply or were ignored. Most visitors were snapping away on their mobile phone or camera, so it's no surprise that there are already more than 20,000 images from the exhibition on photo-sharing website Flickr. And it was clear from the queues that the missing generation for museums - teenagers - went to this show in droves.
The ultimate lesson is about control. Are museum curators and directors brave enough to let go a little?
Of course, there have been a few disgruntled regulars complaining about not being able to see the Assyrian reliefs. The staff probably had a few qualms about the artist's political views and normal medium - hence the rather po-faced disclaimer at the beginning of the show saying that the museum doesn't condone illegal activity and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the staff or trustees. But they still went for it - and look how they have been repaid.
The exhibition's title was Banksy versus Bristol Museum - on this occasion the museum, and the public, are the winners.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
