After 25 years, I’m leaving the Museums Association (MA). My first job was editing Museums Journal, and looking back to my first couple of issues, many things are the same.
There are funding crises, calls for greener museums and concern about a lack of diversity in the workforce.
But much has changed in the past quarter-century. Now, museums care far more about today’s audiences and potential audiences. Then, the priority was more on conservation and collections management.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has made a massive difference. The greatest impact is that museums are no longer perceived as drab and dusty. And in spite of recent cuts, there are far more sources of funding now than there were in those pre-lottery, pre-Renaissance, pre-Significance days.
The MA played a leading role in promoting learning, access and diversity. In 1997, the New Labour government accelerated the focus of museums on audiences.
It directed HLF to strengthen learning and participation, created Renaissance in the Regions and promoted museums’ role in social inclusion.
In 2005, the MA published Collections for the Future, demonstrating that collections existed to be used, not hoarded. Next, the Sustainability and Museums Campaign showed the importance of museums being connected to places and communities.
The latest stage in this sequence of seminal reports is Museums Change Lives, which argues that the difference made by museums to individuals and to society is what matters most.
In the current preoccupation with resilience and survival, that is what we must remember. Museums and galleries exist not for their own sake, but for a purpose: to make people’s lives better.
Maurice Davies is the director of policy and communications at the Museums Association
There are funding crises, calls for greener museums and concern about a lack of diversity in the workforce.
But much has changed in the past quarter-century. Now, museums care far more about today’s audiences and potential audiences. Then, the priority was more on conservation and collections management.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has made a massive difference. The greatest impact is that museums are no longer perceived as drab and dusty. And in spite of recent cuts, there are far more sources of funding now than there were in those pre-lottery, pre-Renaissance, pre-Significance days.
The MA played a leading role in promoting learning, access and diversity. In 1997, the New Labour government accelerated the focus of museums on audiences.
It directed HLF to strengthen learning and participation, created Renaissance in the Regions and promoted museums’ role in social inclusion.
In 2005, the MA published Collections for the Future, demonstrating that collections existed to be used, not hoarded. Next, the Sustainability and Museums Campaign showed the importance of museums being connected to places and communities.
The latest stage in this sequence of seminal reports is Museums Change Lives, which argues that the difference made by museums to individuals and to society is what matters most.
In the current preoccupation with resilience and survival, that is what we must remember. Museums and galleries exist not for their own sake, but for a purpose: to make people’s lives better.
Maurice Davies is the director of policy and communications at the Museums Association
