We – those who do (or don’t) visit museums – are being asked what we think, again. BritainThinks has been employed by the Museums Association to “work with the public to explore their views of the purposes and roles of museums in the UK” for Museums 2020.
The company points out that consulting the public does have its problems as it seems we’re just not as clever as museum professionals. “The issues debated in Museums 2020 are complex and not concepts that the vast majority of the public often considers,” it writes.
Well, excuse me, we do. We may not use academic words, but we do grasp the bigger picture. We don’t only grasp it – we live it. And it’s our first-hand experiences that give us that knowledge.
This is the crux of where such consultation goes so wrong. Underpinning it is a belief that there’s a clear division between visitors’ experiences and developing a blueprint for the future of museums. There may even be more than a division. Real experiences, it’s presumed, may be a barrier to tackling the wider, more important questions.
Very big ideas have grown directly from the same sort of personal experiences this research shuns. Feminism is an obvious example. I remember going on many 1970s women’s lib demos, marching under a banner shouting “The Personal is Political”.
We clearly saw the links between what was happening to us everyday as women, and how that was a reflection of a far wider issue affecting and shaping society.
I know BritainThinks will say I don’t understand what they’re aiming to achieve. But I do. Unless what we as audiences and visitors experience underpins your grand plans, whatever they are, they won’t work.
Nothing will ever happen as a result of forming a few focus groups and writing a report. It will happen from the ground up, when arts audiences and museum visitors’ real experiences shape the future of the arts.
Dea Birkett, director, Kids in Museums
The company points out that consulting the public does have its problems as it seems we’re just not as clever as museum professionals. “The issues debated in Museums 2020 are complex and not concepts that the vast majority of the public often considers,” it writes.
Well, excuse me, we do. We may not use academic words, but we do grasp the bigger picture. We don’t only grasp it – we live it. And it’s our first-hand experiences that give us that knowledge.
This is the crux of where such consultation goes so wrong. Underpinning it is a belief that there’s a clear division between visitors’ experiences and developing a blueprint for the future of museums. There may even be more than a division. Real experiences, it’s presumed, may be a barrier to tackling the wider, more important questions.
Very big ideas have grown directly from the same sort of personal experiences this research shuns. Feminism is an obvious example. I remember going on many 1970s women’s lib demos, marching under a banner shouting “The Personal is Political”.
We clearly saw the links between what was happening to us everyday as women, and how that was a reflection of a far wider issue affecting and shaping society.
I know BritainThinks will say I don’t understand what they’re aiming to achieve. But I do. Unless what we as audiences and visitors experience underpins your grand plans, whatever they are, they won’t work.
Nothing will ever happen as a result of forming a few focus groups and writing a report. It will happen from the ground up, when arts audiences and museum visitors’ real experiences shape the future of the arts.
Dea Birkett, director, Kids in Museums
