The national strategy and the mouse that failed to roar
Back in January 2005 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a remarkable consultation paper entitled Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life.
Estelle Morris, then arts minister, wanted a debate on "the contribution that museums and galleries can make to a modern democracy".
Understanding the Future explored identity, citizenship, collections, learning, research, careers, advocacy, partnerships and measuring value. Following the launch of Renaissance in the Regions, it was another clear sign that at last government had "got" museums. These were heady times of optimism and ambition.
Views were sought and many were expressed, some of which can still be viewed on the DCMS website.
"We need a national strategy for museums which embraces all our functions and values and which explains exactly what we can do and what is expected of us," said the National Museum Directors' Conference.
"A national strategy for museums is an absolute imperative, and a pre-requisite of our being able to make a cogent case to Treasury for adequate levels of funding for museums," is what we at National Museums Liverpool wrote.
"A national strategy would help all kinds of museums feel part of a wider network and be able to take advantage of its collective strength and direction," said the Museums Association.
In answering the question "how can partnerships within the museum sector…be better embedded?" the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) replied: "By working with others to create a national museums strategy. A national strategy for publicly-funded museums is the most important outcome of this consultation process."
It went on to add that it was the ideal body to lead the development of the strategy.
So what's gone wrong? After several years the MLA has produced not a national strategy, but an action plan. After much huffing and puffing, not so much a roar but a tiny squeak has emerged from the process.
The underlying need for a national strategy is still there, structured around Renaissance in the Regions - the best example in the world of government support for regional cultural activity. Any government should want to see a rationale for its investment in museums, and to have a sense of where the nation's museums are heading. DCMS must not allow the MLA to get away with this failure to deliver.
David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool
Don't outlaw our art
I feel forced to comment on Culture and Sport Glasgow's (CSG) current sh[OUT] exhibition, the latest in a series of annual social justice exhibitions based in Glasgow's Museum of Modern Art (Goma), which have, in the past, included domestic violence, sectarianism, and refugees and asylum seekers.
This latest aims to raise "awareness of issues faced by lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender and intersex people" (LGBTI), according to a press release.
Having worked with members of the LGBTI community, both in a professional and voluntary capacity, and having experienced homophobia myself, I know how valuable this exhibition is for raising the profile of the community and highlighting the social exclusion experienced by some.
It may surprise some readers that homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland only in 1980, 13 years after England and Wales.
I visited sh[OUT] and found works that I could relate to and works that I couldn't, and yes, some of the works are explicit. But museums have a duty to represent their communities in both the acquisition and interpretation of their collections.
The trouble seems to have started when the press picked up on Made in God's Image, an exploration of sexuality and religion by Anthony Schrag. The public were invited to write on a Bible, and a few wrote mindless graffiti. This "vandalism" was widely reported by the press; complaints poured in, some from people who had never set foot in Goma.
Liz Cameron, chairwoman of CSG said: "In recent years, lesbian, gay and transgender people have seen progress in their bid for further equality, and I have no doubt that sh[OUT] will serve to further that debate."
I am saddened then, that, after a brave start, CSG have cancelled three of four works by Dani Marti, an international artist and man living with HIV, and is proposing to move his work to a "quieter" venue. From his description of the films commissioned, I am sure that they have a capacity to shock.
Yet, in his film about a 33-year-old Glaswegian man who is HIV positive after a life of prostitution and drug use, is it the description of prostitution and drug use that is shocking, or is it the social conditions and circumstances that resulted in a young person having this kind of life?
If large museum trusts, such as CSG, succumb to pressure from politicians and a vocal minority how much more difficult could it be for other museums?
With social programmes an integral part of museum service provision and museums working to be more representative of many social groups, is there room for this treatment of the LGBTI community? Can we be fulfilling our role if we bow to political pressure and the opinions of a few?
Joe Traynor, Museums Association councillor, Scotland
Alien cultural values
If some lost alien crash-landed in England, I sometimes think that he could be forgiven for thinking he'd ended up on a planet occupied by philistines. The attitude towards heritage and culture shown by many of the people that we place in positions of authority would surely leave him mystified.
The Martian may well recognise that staff on short-term contracts can be good from the employer's viewpoint, but it does not encourage confidence in the sector. It is an accountant's trick to balance books - a trick made easier because of the ready supply of well-qualified applicants, despite the embarrassingly low salaries on offer.
Employing new staff at the bottom of the pay scale every couple of years, ones who have already been trained in the latest techniques, is far more profitable than retaining the "old hands".
As for the mess that is about to be made of North Somerset Museum, our little visitor would probably sit down and weep. The council needs to save money, and so the proposal is that the only museum in its care should have its already overstretched staff cut by seven. Savings are important, but all options should be considered.
Despite the educational role we fill working with schools we are too easily dismissed as an "extra". In the case of North Somerset, this is in spite of the museum's location in Weston-super-Mare in one of the most deprived wards in the country - according to the council's own website.
This deprivation is largely a result of businesses having left the area causing an employment vacuum. Museum professionals know what can be achieved by including such people in different projects. New skills or just plain and simple self-belief helps to build confidence, and makes that next job application a little bit easier.
So we find ourselves in the same Armageddon-like situation we've been in for years - the big question is, is there a solution?
It seems to me that it is high time that cultural services were classed as statutory. Why are they accorded a different status to libraries? I know these have their own problems at the moment, but the weight of the law must make them harder to break.
If my new friend from a distant galaxy has not escaped yet, I might just hitch a ride. Would anyone else like to join me?
Roger Vercoe, volunteer, North Somerset Museums
Back in January 2005 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a remarkable consultation paper entitled Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life.
Estelle Morris, then arts minister, wanted a debate on "the contribution that museums and galleries can make to a modern democracy".
Understanding the Future explored identity, citizenship, collections, learning, research, careers, advocacy, partnerships and measuring value. Following the launch of Renaissance in the Regions, it was another clear sign that at last government had "got" museums. These were heady times of optimism and ambition.
Views were sought and many were expressed, some of which can still be viewed on the DCMS website.
"We need a national strategy for museums which embraces all our functions and values and which explains exactly what we can do and what is expected of us," said the National Museum Directors' Conference.
"A national strategy for museums is an absolute imperative, and a pre-requisite of our being able to make a cogent case to Treasury for adequate levels of funding for museums," is what we at National Museums Liverpool wrote.
"A national strategy would help all kinds of museums feel part of a wider network and be able to take advantage of its collective strength and direction," said the Museums Association.
In answering the question "how can partnerships within the museum sector…be better embedded?" the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) replied: "By working with others to create a national museums strategy. A national strategy for publicly-funded museums is the most important outcome of this consultation process."
It went on to add that it was the ideal body to lead the development of the strategy.
So what's gone wrong? After several years the MLA has produced not a national strategy, but an action plan. After much huffing and puffing, not so much a roar but a tiny squeak has emerged from the process.
The underlying need for a national strategy is still there, structured around Renaissance in the Regions - the best example in the world of government support for regional cultural activity. Any government should want to see a rationale for its investment in museums, and to have a sense of where the nation's museums are heading. DCMS must not allow the MLA to get away with this failure to deliver.
David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool
Don't outlaw our art
I feel forced to comment on Culture and Sport Glasgow's (CSG) current sh[OUT] exhibition, the latest in a series of annual social justice exhibitions based in Glasgow's Museum of Modern Art (Goma), which have, in the past, included domestic violence, sectarianism, and refugees and asylum seekers.
This latest aims to raise "awareness of issues faced by lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender and intersex people" (LGBTI), according to a press release.
Having worked with members of the LGBTI community, both in a professional and voluntary capacity, and having experienced homophobia myself, I know how valuable this exhibition is for raising the profile of the community and highlighting the social exclusion experienced by some.
It may surprise some readers that homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland only in 1980, 13 years after England and Wales.
I visited sh[OUT] and found works that I could relate to and works that I couldn't, and yes, some of the works are explicit. But museums have a duty to represent their communities in both the acquisition and interpretation of their collections.
The trouble seems to have started when the press picked up on Made in God's Image, an exploration of sexuality and religion by Anthony Schrag. The public were invited to write on a Bible, and a few wrote mindless graffiti. This "vandalism" was widely reported by the press; complaints poured in, some from people who had never set foot in Goma.
Liz Cameron, chairwoman of CSG said: "In recent years, lesbian, gay and transgender people have seen progress in their bid for further equality, and I have no doubt that sh[OUT] will serve to further that debate."
I am saddened then, that, after a brave start, CSG have cancelled three of four works by Dani Marti, an international artist and man living with HIV, and is proposing to move his work to a "quieter" venue. From his description of the films commissioned, I am sure that they have a capacity to shock.
Yet, in his film about a 33-year-old Glaswegian man who is HIV positive after a life of prostitution and drug use, is it the description of prostitution and drug use that is shocking, or is it the social conditions and circumstances that resulted in a young person having this kind of life?
If large museum trusts, such as CSG, succumb to pressure from politicians and a vocal minority how much more difficult could it be for other museums?
With social programmes an integral part of museum service provision and museums working to be more representative of many social groups, is there room for this treatment of the LGBTI community? Can we be fulfilling our role if we bow to political pressure and the opinions of a few?
Joe Traynor, Museums Association councillor, Scotland
Alien cultural values
If some lost alien crash-landed in England, I sometimes think that he could be forgiven for thinking he'd ended up on a planet occupied by philistines. The attitude towards heritage and culture shown by many of the people that we place in positions of authority would surely leave him mystified.
The Martian may well recognise that staff on short-term contracts can be good from the employer's viewpoint, but it does not encourage confidence in the sector. It is an accountant's trick to balance books - a trick made easier because of the ready supply of well-qualified applicants, despite the embarrassingly low salaries on offer.
Employing new staff at the bottom of the pay scale every couple of years, ones who have already been trained in the latest techniques, is far more profitable than retaining the "old hands".
As for the mess that is about to be made of North Somerset Museum, our little visitor would probably sit down and weep. The council needs to save money, and so the proposal is that the only museum in its care should have its already overstretched staff cut by seven. Savings are important, but all options should be considered.
Despite the educational role we fill working with schools we are too easily dismissed as an "extra". In the case of North Somerset, this is in spite of the museum's location in Weston-super-Mare in one of the most deprived wards in the country - according to the council's own website.
This deprivation is largely a result of businesses having left the area causing an employment vacuum. Museum professionals know what can be achieved by including such people in different projects. New skills or just plain and simple self-belief helps to build confidence, and makes that next job application a little bit easier.
So we find ourselves in the same Armageddon-like situation we've been in for years - the big question is, is there a solution?
It seems to me that it is high time that cultural services were classed as statutory. Why are they accorded a different status to libraries? I know these have their own problems at the moment, but the weight of the law must make them harder to break.
If my new friend from a distant galaxy has not escaped yet, I might just hitch a ride. Would anyone else like to join me?
Roger Vercoe, volunteer, North Somerset Museums
