Last month, Arts Council England (ACE) held its annual State of the Arts conference at the Lowry in Salford.
I went along in the hope that museums and museum issues would be high on the agenda, following last year’s transfer of responsibilities from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to ACE, and the recent major grant funding announcement.
But I was disappointed. It was not that the half-dozen museum delegates were given the cold shoulder; it was more that the content wasn’t very relevant – or groundbreaking, for that matter.
The emphasis was on artists and their contribution to the cultural sector. In fact, there were 18 sessions on the role of the artist.
Speaker after speaker talked about putting the artist at the centre, and allowing talent to emerge and thrive. We were repeatedly told that the artist must be the focus of the arts council’s work.
Of course it must be difficult, when there are so many different art forms to cover, to find a focus that unites visual artists, choreographers, dancers, playwrights, actors, writers and people who work in museums, libraries and archives.
Except, surely, the one thing that they have in common is the audience? Unfortunately, audiences got little mention and when they did they were firmly pigeon-holed in the role of “passive consumer”.
This conference was a missed opportunity. There is huge curiosity about the rest of the arts sector from those who work in museums, and there are already lots of examples of working in partnership and across art platforms.
The conference was a chance for new and existing partnerships to be forged and consolidated, and for common ground to be explored.
What the conference did prove was that there is still a big gap between the arts council and the average museum – and ACE will have to try harder if it wants to bridge it.
Sharon Heal, editor, Museums Journal
sharon@museumsassociation.org
www.twitter.com/sharonheal
I went along in the hope that museums and museum issues would be high on the agenda, following last year’s transfer of responsibilities from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to ACE, and the recent major grant funding announcement.
But I was disappointed. It was not that the half-dozen museum delegates were given the cold shoulder; it was more that the content wasn’t very relevant – or groundbreaking, for that matter.
The emphasis was on artists and their contribution to the cultural sector. In fact, there were 18 sessions on the role of the artist.
Speaker after speaker talked about putting the artist at the centre, and allowing talent to emerge and thrive. We were repeatedly told that the artist must be the focus of the arts council’s work.
Of course it must be difficult, when there are so many different art forms to cover, to find a focus that unites visual artists, choreographers, dancers, playwrights, actors, writers and people who work in museums, libraries and archives.
Except, surely, the one thing that they have in common is the audience? Unfortunately, audiences got little mention and when they did they were firmly pigeon-holed in the role of “passive consumer”.
This conference was a missed opportunity. There is huge curiosity about the rest of the arts sector from those who work in museums, and there are already lots of examples of working in partnership and across art platforms.
The conference was a chance for new and existing partnerships to be forged and consolidated, and for common ground to be explored.
What the conference did prove was that there is still a big gap between the arts council and the average museum – and ACE will have to try harder if it wants to bridge it.
Sharon Heal, editor, Museums Journal
sharon@museumsassociation.org
www.twitter.com/sharonheal