Memorandum submitted by the Greater London
Authority
INTRODUCTION
1. The Mayor of London's contribution to
the "Caring for Our Collections" Parliamentary Committee
Inquiry reflects the Greater London Authority's (GLA) continuing
commitment to strengthening London's creative and cultural industries.
London is a world city and tourism is key to its economy. London
attracts over 13 million non-resident visitors each year, many
coming to visit London's heritage institutions.
2. Across the capital there are currently
four World Heritage Sites:
— Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey
and Saint Margaret's Church;
— Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich;
and
— Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
3. London is also home to many of the nation's
heritage national collections, which are held in:
— National Maritime Museum
— National Portrait Gallery
— Sir John Soane's Museum
— Victoria & Albert Museum
4. London's heritage sites and institutions
are generating great economic benefits to the capital, providing
cultural tourism and making London a seminal centre for international
academic research.
5. National collections play a significant
role within the cultural sector, offering a rich learning experience
for both Londoners and visitors alike, reinforcing London's position
as a world leader in the cultural and creative industries. With
London hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, the city will be a major
showcase for Britain's sporting and cultural talents. As part
of the cultural offer of the Games, London's national collections
will play a significant role in delivering the cultural programme
of the Olympic Games.
6. In July 2006, the Department for Communities
and Local Government issued a policy statement outlining the government's
final proposals for the Mayor and the London Assembly's additional
powers and responsibilities. The importance of the Mayor's role
in cultural issues within London are recognised by the Government's
proposed extension of the Mayor's powers. The proposed extension
of powers, if approved, will impact on the cultural sector in
three key areas:
— The Mayor will be allowed to appoint
the Chairs and some board members of the Arts Council England
(ACE) London, the London Regional Sports (LRSB) and the Museums,
Libraries and Archives (MLA, London).
— The Mayor will be required to consult
arts, sports and other cultural delivery bodies in the future
development of the Mayor's Cultural Strategy and the national
and regional strategic cultural bodies should consult the Mayor
on their strategies, where there is a London impact.
— The Mayor will assume part responsibility
for the funding and governance of Museum of London.
7. In summary, the strategic role of the
national collections within London's creative and cultural life,
the cultural offer of the 2012 Olympic Games, and the proposed
extension of the Mayor's powers, underscore the Mayor's commitment
to strengthening the quality of London's heritage institutions.
Thus all areas of the Committee Inquiry—"the adequacy
of the funding of national collections, the impact of the Olympics
on the national collections, acquisition/disposal policies, and
the remit and effectiveness of the DCMS, MLA in representing cultural
interests"—are of importance to the Mayor.
8. In 2004, the Mayor of London published
his "Culture Strategy" for London, a document which
focused on sustaining and promoting the excellence, creativity,
access and value in London cultural institutions. The "Culture
Strategy" notes that all Londoners should have fair and equal
access to all the cultural opportunities that London has to offer.
Within the "Culture Strategy" the Mayor acknowledged
that national collections are a key social, cultural and economic
asset for London.
9. The Mayor's "Culture Strategy"
further recognises that the "excellence and quality of culture
in London will only be achieved by ensuring that London's diverse
communities are reflected and active in the cultural life of the
city".
10. As part of the Mayoral process to develop
and sustain equal access to London's heritage sector the "Mayor's
Commission on African and Asian Heritage" (MCAAH), was established.
The MCAAH report, "Delivering Shared Heritage", was
launched at the Victoria and Albert Museum in July 2005.
11. "Delivering Shared Heritage"
highlighted in its recommendations a number of key areas that
need to be addressed to increase the participation of London's
Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities:
— Making heritage collections relevant,
vibrant and accessible to BAME communities.
— Developing equitable partnerships
with BAME communities and heritage organisations.
— Diversifying the workforce and governing
bodies of London's heritage institutions.
— Developing BAME audiences/users within
museums and archives.
— Investing in and developing BAME
heritage institutions.
— Embedding equality principles in
the governing principles of heritage institutions.
— The development of strategies for
preserving the heritage of BAME communities.
12. The MCAAH implementation framework is
now being set-up, which will include the establishment of the
"Heritage Diversity Task Force" and monitoring group.
A number of strategic working groups will also feed into the implementation
process. These working groups will develop strategic policies
and initiatives relating to issues of cultural diversity and the
heritage sector. Under this remit, the Collections Working Group
is addressing national collections within London's heritage institutions.
13. The Culture, Media and Sports Committee
are urged to recognise, as documented in "Delivering Shared
Heritage", the important role that access to heritage and
culture plays for all the nation's communities—underpinning
our sense of social cohesion and inclusion, citizenship and the
sense of "belonging to Britain". These points are reinforced
in the Home Office's Report "Culture Shock, Tolerance, Respect,
Understanding and Museums", 2005.
14. In order to achieve best value for all
of London's citizens, national museums need to develop more inclusive
and accessible strategies that enable collections to deliver shared
heritage through: collection management, curatorial work, research,
interpretation and display.
Theme One: Funding, with particular reference
to the adequacy of the budget for museums, galleries and archives,
and the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on Lottery funding
for their sector.
15. In order to deliver the Olympic Games
as an event that represents the best of Britain's cultural offer
and sporting talent, it is essential that national collections
should play a key part in the enhanced delivery of the Olympics
cultural programme. National collections will continue to play
a key role in the development and delivery of the Olympic legacy,
through its on-going processes of acquisition, documentation,
and knowledge dissemination. Furthermore, national collections
will form a key part of the permanent legacy of the Olympic Games
through the archiving and housing of the Olympic process—from
the original bid through to the planning, building and staging
of the 2012 Games. Funds may need to be made available to facilitate
the correct processes of documentation, storage and retrieval
of the London 2012 Olympic processes.
16. National collections form the bedrock
of cultural heritage. When the wealth of knowledge in collections
is fully utilised, it has the potential to inform the construction
of a changing British national identity. The need for greater
investment to support national collections infrastructure will
enable heritage institutions to sustain and develop their collections
and make them genuinely accessible for all potential users to
experience and enjoy.
17. Increasingly museums, archives and galleries
have developed projects and partnerships that have enhanced their
collections, making them dynamic, vibrant and more open to creating
learning and cultural experiences that can attract new and hard-to-reach
audiences. Partnership working, particularly with BAME community
heritage groups in London, have successfully facilitated out-reach
and educational projects. Museums have benefited from successful
partnerships, but equitable partnership building needs to be imbedded
into mainstream museum practice. Too often this work is dependent
on short-term project funding. More investment is needed to sustain
this work as a core activity.
18. Investment is also required to build
upon the knowledge base that informs a rigorous, multi-layered
reinterpretation of collections. An inclusive approach to collection
management, research, curation and display strengthens and reinforces
Britain's important historical and contemporary links. Museums,
Libraries and Archives, London note:
"there can't be a generalist or specialist
museum collection in London that doesn't in some way reflect the
city's centuries long position at the heart of a network of worldwide
exploration, trade (including the trade in human beings) and imperialism.
[These relationships have impacted on] every aspect of the capital's
wealth and daily life, on science, aesthetics, technology and
culture." (Caroline Reed, Revisiting Collections: Revealing
significance, MLA, London 2005)
19. The MCAAH welcomes the MLA London initiative
"Revisiting Collections", which focuses on documentation
and collection management. "Revisiting Collections"
aims to deliver collection description and documentation that
is rooted in contextual and specific research. Inclusive and accessible
documentation processes form a key plank in the strategic aim
to make collections rich, full, complete and comprehensible. However,
this can only be achieved through scholarly investigation and
advice from BME experts and practitioners. Therefore, further
investment will be needed to allow national collections to undertake
the necessary professional and academic work to allow museums
to reveal the breadth, range and significance of London's national
collections to all possible users.
Theme Two: Acquisition and disposal policies with
particular reference to due diligence obligations on acquisition
and legal restrictions on disposal of objects.
20. There needs to be a greater consistency
in the use of national standards within national collection management
systems. Whilst all the national collections in London are accredited
members of the internationally recognised museums collections
management system "Spectrum", its use within collections
is uneven. The standardisation of collections management systems
would greatly increase accessibility of national collections,
and aid scholarship and research into the national collections.
With a systematic application of national standards within collection
management systems, more informed and transparent decision making
process could be developed with regard to acquisition and disposal
policies.
21. The implementation of national standards
within collection management systems would facilitate greater
access to information within collections, that would more fully
document diverse cultural value across a range of creative economic,
cultural, scientific and religious areas. Investment in a strategic
sector-led approach to implement a consistent and coherent collections
management system across all the national collections, would allow
for greater accessibility, excellence and cultural value.
22. The Mayor welcomes the Arts Council
of England initiative, which is seeking to establish a national
database of the nation's visual art collections, and also welcomes
further investment into such initiatives. Initiatives such as
these would greatly aid collections in identifying the location
and extent of the nation's art collections and to establish acquisition
policies that truly reflect the cultural diversity of artists
working in Britain today.
23. In relationship to contemporary artists
living in Britain, current national collections fail to reflect
the history and diversity of visual artists from BAME backgrounds.
Within the commissioning and acquisition of public art by the
national collections, the Mayor would like to see further investment
in this area. This should be also applied to new commissions of
public art work for London and the 2012 Olympics, which should
reflect the cultural diversity and excellence of artists working
in London. In light of this, the Mayor welcomes the Arts Council
of England's (ACE) setting up of "Regional Collection Groups".
One of the aims is that public art commissions be turned into
longer term cultural legacies through the acquisition of publicly
commissioned works by the national and regional collections.
24. The acquisition of key Olympic public
commissioned works would greatly enhance the cultural and aesthetic
legacy of the Olympics. National collections will have a key role
in the success of this process. However, further investment is
needed in this area and the Mayor would welcome the Treasury's
consideration of "tax breaks" to encourage the giving
of works of art, legacies in wills and monetary donations to public
collections. Tax concessions in this area would have the added
incentive of generating greater funds to the national collections
to purchase works by contemporary artists.
25. In order to facilitate greater participation
of BAME groups in the heritage sector, national collections need
to formulate more inclusive collection and acquisition strategies
for collecting and preserving the heritage of BAME groups. Where
there are scholarly identified gaps, in the reflection of BAME
histories and communities in British national life, within the
national collections, the Heritage Lottery Fund should fund the
acquisition of relevant and appropriate materials, artefacts and
documents.
Theme Three: The remit and effectiveness of DCMS,
the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and other relevant
organisations in representing cultural interests inside and outside
Government.
26. The Mayor welcomes recent initiatives
by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council that seek to enhance
the relationship between the national agency and its regional
partners. MLA's commitment to reaching out to new and hard to
reach audiences, are welcomed in London.
27. However, a stronger commitment to promoting
and insuring inclusion and cultural diversity is required.
28. The DCMS should be encouraged to play
a more proactive role in creating funding agreements that ensure
a commitment to inclusive practices within all aspects of museums,
galleries, libraries and archives professional practice.
September 2006
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