Letters

Why do museums neglect the public’s favourite heritage?

The recent findings that natural history collections are the main reason for people to visit museums in London came as no surprise to those working with these collections across the country.

This is contradicted by current resource allocation and focus within many museums and most museum studies courses. It is a shame that the demise of natural history collections in terms of public display and provision of care within British museums has been done under the pretence of a perceived public need that focuses more on the arts and community engagement.

The loss of natural history collections from display as well as the reduction in provision of care for these collections removes the public’s ability to engage with their favourite part of heritage.

This research also contradicts the ideas of centralisation of collections between UK museums where selected museums become regional centres of excellence for specific collections.

Natural history was given as an example of a collection area suitable for centralisation within the heritage sector by Roy Clare, chief executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, in 2009.

But centralisation of natural history collections would rob most regional and local museums of their prized objects with which to engage and attract visitors.

I was taught by a trainer on a museum course who was not a natural historian that “to free resources, natural history collections in many local museums could be disposed without investigation as they are not usually scientifically important and are often duplicated elsewhere”.

This is not only incorrect, but ignores the fact that natural history collections also have historical and cultural importance.

An increase in the care and use of natural history collections may appear to some as a rather traditional approach, but it is steeped in pragmatism, meets public needs, is likely to increase museum visits as well as helping ensure the long-term health of British heritage.

It is shocking therefore how neglected natural history collections in many British museums have become, how little funding is available and the contempt with which they are often regarded by many museum professionals.

Something very wrong must be happening if museums cut areas the public actually want to see while reneging on their obligation to care for and facilitate access to parts of their collections.

The museum sector needs to ask itself some tough questions as to its current direction of neglecting certain subjects simply because of a perceived need to focus and prioritise.

Name and address supplied

Museums Journal January 2010, p13

Natural selection

The Natural Sciences Collections Association committee is delighted to read that 82 per cent of respondents to Renaissance London’s survey say that they were interested in natural history. That was more than contemporary art, local history, or even ancient history.

So, are we giving people what they want? In some cases: yes. Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Norwich and Leeds, among others, have all recognised the value of their natural science holdings – using them extensively in recent gallery and museum openings.

In other cases, natural history is being treated as the poor relation to other disciplines. Bristol, in particular, springs to mind: the rumblings are that the natural science staff will be significantly reduced in number.

We were pleased to read that the results of the survey mean that the London Hub will plan events at Hub museums and to support packages for the wider museum sector.

We look forward to plenty of natural history-themed exhibitions, events and programming in London in the coming months and so will London’s residents.

Clare Brown, curator, natural science, Leeds Museums and Galleries

Museums Journal January 2010, p13

Reading lessons

I agree that the language used for display text is an important aspect of accessibility, but I would argue that legibility is equally – if not more – important.

However good the language, display text won’t engage visitors if they can’t read it. It is still depressingly common to find that captions are difficult or impossible to read because of poor lighting or positioning, use of small or unsuitable typefaces, and ill-considered layout or large amounts of reversed-out text.

A case in point is the labelling in the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries, where I found legibility hindered by the use of a lightweight typeface on distracting backgrounds; arbitrary positioning of labels, some of which could only be read on bended knee; and text obscured by glare from lighting or by one’s own shadow.

Yes, I wear bifocal glasses, but this shouldn’t mean that I am often left wondering why designers seem so unaware of good practice on how to make text legible.

David Martin, freelance writer

Museums Journal February 2010, p20

Upload me now

At South Lanarkshire Council Museums we’re doing some pioneering work in the field of succession planning and knowledge harvesting. I have been working part-time on a succession planning project that began following discussions with Museums Galleries Scotland, who, with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), are generously funding this project.

We are in the first year of the three-year project, with a case study centred on my 34 years’ service with our museums. The main aim is to embed succession planning into our daily work. I see my successors as the museums team and our public. 

The project’s three phases are:

1. Transfer collections knowledge to the content management system; focus on the collections team; identify and fix problems; brief the Scottish Collections Managers group; digitise Regimental magazine; liaise with the Museums Association (MA) on progress.

 2. Widen the project’s reach to explore common working with the MA; look at collections development opportunities and build succession planning into our council’s Performance Development Review process; build in succession planning to the continuing professional development of staff working towards the Associatship of the Museums Association.

3. Widen out the project to take a strategic approach to explore staff progression and succession; look at a retirement countdown process; involve corporate personnel from the council; build succession planning into the museum’s forward plan; secure a link with the council’s strategic succession planning.

One of the new procedures we have introduced is in knowledge harvesting. I am doing interviews about the objects I recall and recording this and using voice recognition software to convert it into text that can be added to the content management system.

We are happy to share ideas about this increasingly important area of museum work.

Terry Mackenzie, museum officer, South Lanarkshire Council Museums

Museums Journal January 2010, p32

Scholarship triumphs

Tim Knox’s views on the moral duty to report our acquisition to the French Culture Ministry, and the scholarship and significance of Chagall’s Crucifixion from 1945, may have left colleagues in some doubt.

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has confirmed we acted correctly in accordance with our own acquisition policy and the Museums Association’s Code of Ethics.

There is no moral obligation for a British museum to unilaterally “point out” anything about its acquisitions to culture ministries abroad outside that required for export certification – as nor do foreign museums here to the department for culture steering committee of which Tim is a distinguished member.

Scholars take a different view to Tim regarding the importance and context of the work within the cannon of Chagall’s oeuvre and that of second world war art as, no doubt, does the Art Institute of Chicago and the Musee d’Arte Moderne in Paris, which are the other custodians of these rare wartime Crucifixions.

We see the acquisition as a triumph for scholarship and for British museums and we are very proud it is the first Chagall Crucifixion in a British public collection. We are indebted to the Art Fund and the V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund who worked with us at very short notice on this acquisition.

David Glasser, director, Ben Uri Gallery, the Art Museum for Everyone, the London Jewish Museum of Art

Museums Journal February 2010, p9