Opinion
Why flaws in the export system need to be fixed
If you managed to save up to buy a new object for your collection, only to be told it’s not actually for sale, how would you feel? Bemused? Angry? This was the situation that faced the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and the Burrell Collection just before Christmas. Between them they had raised over £950,000 to …
Are tiered entry prices a way forward for museums?
Last year I chaired a small group set up by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to think about the future of museums. It was a good mix of museum expertise and outsider viewpoints. For me, as a lay person who has always been in the habit of visiting museums but had never looked at …
Who should take the lead in cultural strategy?
Our sector is experiencing radical change of a kind we have not seen for decades. The scything down of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council has left a strategic and operational gap that Arts Council England (ACE), as a multi-sector agency, cannot easily fill. And the bonfire of the quangos means that local museums have …
Post-Great Transition: the museum of 2030
According to an old Tibetan saying: “If you want to know your future, look at what you are doing in this moment.” This captures our efforts at the NWFED (formerly the North West Federation of Museums and Art Galleries) to get our hundreds of members prepared for a dramatically changed future. The saying works in …
Letters
You can close our museums but you can’t take our dreams I am an out-of-work museum professional, writing an open letter to ask the government for more understanding for people in my situation. My maternity cover contract could not have ended at a worse time – a few months after the election last year. Since …