Opinion
Voxpop: What does 2014 hold for museums?
Victoria Rogers, museum manager, Cardiff Story Museum “There is no doubt that 2014 is going to be tough for museums, and will challenge us all to find new ways of delivering to remain at the heart of our communities. The beginning of the commemorations of the first world war will provide opportunities for virtually all …
Collaboration can help solve funding issues
Last year, Opera North and University of Leeds colleagues and I embarked on a quest to explore new ways of looking at fundraising in the arts. The result was the DARE Fundraising Academy, which was launched in summer 2013. It is a programme of skills development designed to help fill the gaps identified through our …
Freelancers are a key part of workforce
If you’re self-employed in the museum and heritage sector, you’re part of a thriving community, according to a survey I ran in preparation for a session at the Museums Association conference in November. The results gave a snapshot of a group of professionals pursuing diverse and successful careers outside institutions, from community consultation to strategy …
Editorial: It’s time to overhaul the funding structure
Last month, we found out that there is a huge disparity in public and private funding between cultural organisations in London and the rest of the UK. The shocking facts speak for themselves (see this month’s news analysis). Of course, as the capital of England, London could be expected to get a larger slice of …
Oral history in museums is under attack
News that the Museum of London is axing its oral history curator, a post created 20 years ago, is the latest in a worrying trend that has seen oral history posts disappear at Beamish, Newcastle, Bradford, Bristol, Croydon and Southampton. Elsewhere, notably at the Imperial War Museum, where oral history was pioneered in the 1970s, …
Remembering Rwanda’s genocide
When a million people are murdered, however carefully the criminals cover their tracks to extinguish even the memory of their victims, the logistics of the atrocity are so great that a vast amount of evidence is left behind. Rwanda’s leaders are developing a plan to ensure evidence does not disappear nearly 20 years after genocide …