Opinion
What Barack Obama can teach museum managers
There are more books and articles published and courses organised about leadership than any other sub-discipline of business. We have our fair share in the cultural sector. This year I attended a Cultural Leadership Programme leadership facilitation skills course run by Action Learning Associates. Its aim was to provide support in developing leadership skills – …
The government has put the lid on advocacy so it’s time for a bit of DIY
The political and economic landscape has changed, and the advocacy environment has changed with it. As a sector we have historically depended on our quangos to advocate on our behalf (the likes of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and English Heritage). And they’ve been obliging. But as a consequence of the Tories’ localism agenda, …
Letters
Supporting tomorrow’s curators today is crucial for our collections This letter is prompted by the very welcome points made by Stephen Deuchar regarding curatorial expertise and Maurice Davies regarding collecting at a time of financial crisis. Important positions, but there is a risk that these positions unintentionally polarise the situation on the ground, creating a …
A slow shuffle in a forwards direction
The first Young Graduates in Museums and Galleries (YGMG) internships started in 2005. When I wrote the YGMG programme I was adamant that its students would be inclusive of all the cultures in Britain. But it is a worrying trend that, often when I speak of YGMG, many think it is confined to black, Asian …
Stopping collecting will squeeze the lifeblood out of museums
When Victor Hugo wrote that necessity is the mother of invention I doubt he was thinking much about museums and the curatorial ingenuity needed these days to keep them and their collections thriving. But if you work in museums it won’t come as a surprise to hear that acquiring new work – once the very …
Letters
Putting natural history collections on the museum map I read your correspondent’s contribution on this topic of natural history collections, Why do museums neglect the public’s favourite heritage?, with interest. The Natural History Museum (NHM) saw an underlying rise in visitor numbers of more than 500,000 between 2005 and 2008, and a further big increase …