The Renaissance Review is a beacon-hill that gives a wide view across the landscape of museums in England, as well as a chance to assess the role of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council in shaping a strategy for their improvement.
It is fortunate then that we find so many positive things to build on. However we assess - them our nation's museums have never been so successful. Just look at the boost to culture in Bristol that the innovative Banksy exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery has given.
It is worth reminding ourselves what Renaissance has achieved - reversing a decline of regional museums and raising their profile, quality and professional confidence. There are now around 15 million visits to hub museums every year and by March 2011 nearly £300m will have been invested in the programme overall.
The MLA has strongly welcomed many aspects of the review. For instance: we are now committed to cooperating even more closely with local government and have re-affirmed our belief in the vital role of partnership working.
Indeed, we believe that museums should strive to extend this principle still further, so as to embrace social entrepreneurs, health trusts, and the voluntary sector as a whole.
We are well down the road to addressing the shortcomings in the former management of the scheme. Some changes will be difficult and others not popular with everyone, but we are determined to make the programme fully accountable and transparent.
The MLA has never been more active in its efforts to construct a single vision for museums. Leading Museums, the MLA's new National Action Plan, sets clear priorities for the future. Museums are vital for the spread of knowledge, learning, creativity and enjoyment, but will only be effective if they value the needs of their audiences above everything.
Once that condition has been set, museums find their proper place in communities: at their heart. Museums should set as much - or more - store in sharing their collections as in preserving them.
All stories, including those told by museums, become more vivid when we see our own history represented by tangible things. The more that can be done to enable people to collaborate in the interpretation of collections, the richer those collections become.
Recent MLA initiatives that have strengthened engagement in this way include our 2012 programme Stories of the World and intergenerational programmes such as Museums at Night and Kids in Museums.
The MLA has identified three areas where it will help museums to engage with people more actively. First it will support excellence by rewarding the best museums and helping them to spread best practice. This process will be backed up by our review of Accreditation, which will encourage museums to develop a more strategic and sustainable approach to collections.
Secondly we will promote partnerships by strengthening links between museums, as well as encouraging further synergies between them and other cultural bodies, and encourage museums to develop their relationships with tourism and the creative economy.
Thirdly the MLA will work with others, particularly the Museums Association, to build capacity by developing leadership and the workforce, promoting sustainable finance and investing in the digital future.
We need to recognise and applaud the inspirational work done by the staff and volunteers we presently have, but we also need to support and invest in those staff so that we can encourage new faces and new ideas to enter the workforce.
The digital era represents the best opportunity that museums have ever had to be recognised for their role in stimulating the spread of knowledge; we are particularly pleased to be working closely with organisations such as the Collections Trust, Culture 24 and UKOLN.
The MLA will also form an advisory group of people whose business acumen will guide the development of entrepreneurial programmes in regional museums and will work with the National Museum Directors Conference to develop ways that charitable giving can be promoted.
National museums will have a key role to work more actively in building partnerships with regional museums, sharing not just collections, but expertise as they organise loans, mobile exhibitions and the effective exploitation of digital technologies.
This is a wide-ranging set of ambitions but diverse as they are, they rest on a common principle. At the core lies our conviction that museum collections are kept for the nation so that they can be shared with the nation's people.
We are committed to bringing together the best brains and the most fruitful energies to realise this plan. And we are committed to supporting museums so that they can share their treasures with us all.
Andrew Motion is the chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
It is fortunate then that we find so many positive things to build on. However we assess - them our nation's museums have never been so successful. Just look at the boost to culture in Bristol that the innovative Banksy exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery has given.
It is worth reminding ourselves what Renaissance has achieved - reversing a decline of regional museums and raising their profile, quality and professional confidence. There are now around 15 million visits to hub museums every year and by March 2011 nearly £300m will have been invested in the programme overall.
The MLA has strongly welcomed many aspects of the review. For instance: we are now committed to cooperating even more closely with local government and have re-affirmed our belief in the vital role of partnership working.
Indeed, we believe that museums should strive to extend this principle still further, so as to embrace social entrepreneurs, health trusts, and the voluntary sector as a whole.
We are well down the road to addressing the shortcomings in the former management of the scheme. Some changes will be difficult and others not popular with everyone, but we are determined to make the programme fully accountable and transparent.
The MLA has never been more active in its efforts to construct a single vision for museums. Leading Museums, the MLA's new National Action Plan, sets clear priorities for the future. Museums are vital for the spread of knowledge, learning, creativity and enjoyment, but will only be effective if they value the needs of their audiences above everything.
Once that condition has been set, museums find their proper place in communities: at their heart. Museums should set as much - or more - store in sharing their collections as in preserving them.
All stories, including those told by museums, become more vivid when we see our own history represented by tangible things. The more that can be done to enable people to collaborate in the interpretation of collections, the richer those collections become.
Recent MLA initiatives that have strengthened engagement in this way include our 2012 programme Stories of the World and intergenerational programmes such as Museums at Night and Kids in Museums.
The MLA has identified three areas where it will help museums to engage with people more actively. First it will support excellence by rewarding the best museums and helping them to spread best practice. This process will be backed up by our review of Accreditation, which will encourage museums to develop a more strategic and sustainable approach to collections.
Secondly we will promote partnerships by strengthening links between museums, as well as encouraging further synergies between them and other cultural bodies, and encourage museums to develop their relationships with tourism and the creative economy.
Thirdly the MLA will work with others, particularly the Museums Association, to build capacity by developing leadership and the workforce, promoting sustainable finance and investing in the digital future.
We need to recognise and applaud the inspirational work done by the staff and volunteers we presently have, but we also need to support and invest in those staff so that we can encourage new faces and new ideas to enter the workforce.
The digital era represents the best opportunity that museums have ever had to be recognised for their role in stimulating the spread of knowledge; we are particularly pleased to be working closely with organisations such as the Collections Trust, Culture 24 and UKOLN.
The MLA will also form an advisory group of people whose business acumen will guide the development of entrepreneurial programmes in regional museums and will work with the National Museum Directors Conference to develop ways that charitable giving can be promoted.
National museums will have a key role to work more actively in building partnerships with regional museums, sharing not just collections, but expertise as they organise loans, mobile exhibitions and the effective exploitation of digital technologies.
This is a wide-ranging set of ambitions but diverse as they are, they rest on a common principle. At the core lies our conviction that museum collections are kept for the nation so that they can be shared with the nation's people.
We are committed to bringing together the best brains and the most fruitful energies to realise this plan. And we are committed to supporting museums so that they can share their treasures with us all.
Andrew Motion is the chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
