Political activism has a long history in Glasgow, where strikes, confrontations and calls for reform from disenchanted workers sprung up in the city in 1820 and spread to other areas of Scotland in what was known as the Radical War, or Scottish Insurrection.
This year’s Museums Association Conference & Exhibition in Glasgow (7-9 November) reflects some of the city’s radical traditions, including a session where speakers from Royal Museums Greenwich, Manchester Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund will look at how collections and buildings can be used to inspire audiences and help them engage with activism.
That session is part of the Being Brave strand – one of three themes at the conference – and will also include talks on censorship, feminism and radical change in museums. The strand is being overseen by Adele Patrick from Glasgow Women’s Library, who is profiled in this issue.
This bumper conference edition also has an article on activism, which considers how museums are addressing the social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect their audiences.
Among the museums and galleries featured is the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where staff have been asking “what is art for?” The answer lies in a new vision of what the organisation can be, which is a venue dedicated to the promotion of art as a tool for education and social change.
This is the concept of a Useful Museum, which leads to the question “what is a museum for?” For many years the answer has focused on caring for and conserving objects and, hopefully, interpreting and showing them as widely as possible to the public.
But museums, as they try to deepen their relationship with their audiences, are increasingly looking to become much more than this. And they are doing this by focusing more on addressing contemporary social, political, economic and environmental concerns.
One of the final sessions in Glasgow will involve speakers from the UK’s four nations discussing the huge political and cultural shifts we have seen over the past year, and assessing whether museums can still claim to be in touch with their public. And, if they aren’t, what can they do about it?
This year’s Museums Association Conference & Exhibition in Glasgow (7-9 November) reflects some of the city’s radical traditions, including a session where speakers from Royal Museums Greenwich, Manchester Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund will look at how collections and buildings can be used to inspire audiences and help them engage with activism.
That session is part of the Being Brave strand – one of three themes at the conference – and will also include talks on censorship, feminism and radical change in museums. The strand is being overseen by Adele Patrick from Glasgow Women’s Library, who is profiled in this issue.
This bumper conference edition also has an article on activism, which considers how museums are addressing the social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect their audiences.
Among the museums and galleries featured is the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where staff have been asking “what is art for?” The answer lies in a new vision of what the organisation can be, which is a venue dedicated to the promotion of art as a tool for education and social change.
This is the concept of a Useful Museum, which leads to the question “what is a museum for?” For many years the answer has focused on caring for and conserving objects and, hopefully, interpreting and showing them as widely as possible to the public.
But museums, as they try to deepen their relationship with their audiences, are increasingly looking to become much more than this. And they are doing this by focusing more on addressing contemporary social, political, economic and environmental concerns.
One of the final sessions in Glasgow will involve speakers from the UK’s four nations discussing the huge political and cultural shifts we have seen over the past year, and assessing whether museums can still claim to be in touch with their public. And, if they aren’t, what can they do about it?
