Memorandum submitted by Julian Spalding
CARING FOR
OUR COLLECTIONS
I would like to submit evidence to the committee
re the above. Obviously it would be better if I could answer questions
and elaborate my ideas orally, but I submit the following as an
indication of the new approach that needs to be taken to enable
the public to benefit more from Britain's uniquely great museum
collections. It's not enough to care for collections; we have
to care for their use.
I would be happy for any of my evidence to be
made public. Far too many decisions in museums are taken behind
closed doors. It is, perhaps, one of the most un-transparent areas
of government. To give just two examples: the recent short-sighted
decision to terminate the National Gallery's collection at 1900
(which the current director is already seeking to change), and
the decision by the Tate to partner the Design Museum, which has
serious long-term implications for the V&A.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. It is stimulating to think of museum
and galleries not in terms of the ones we have but in terms of
the ones we need. Collections are only worth preserving if they
serve people's needs.
2. Here are some examples of museums we
need:
(a) We need to understand how contemporary
culture has been formed and what it has achieved—yet no
museum I know of is currently collecting digital imagery, and
one of the most significant new museums—the Museum of the
Moving Image—was (during the lottery bonanza!) allowed to
close.
(b) We urgently need museums that help us
understand religious cultures (including our own) and, most pressingly,
Islam. Though museums are full of religious artefacts, none teach
their public about religion (except the little St Mungo Museum
of Religious Life and Art I created in Glasgow). Some of the world's
greatest collections of Islamic art are divided between the V&A
and the British Museum. This division doesn't aid religious understanding;
neither does the V&A's new Islamic display which opens with
cases on Byzantine and Sassanian influences and Iranian fritware—both
valid subjects for scholarly research but hardly priorities for
public expenditure.
(c) We urgently need museums that help us
understand and re-evaluate mankind's changing relationship with
nature. Natural History collections in the West (they never existed
in the East) used to be housed with ethnographic collections (Chicago's
still are), but were separated as these studies became more scientific.
The stuffed giraffes left the British Museum after the discovery
of evolution. We need to look again at the history of our attitude
to nature, including human nature, such as relationships between
the sexes.
(d) We need a museum that helps us understand
contemporary politics. The ideas of Communism shaped, both negatively
and positively, the whole of twentieth century culture—but
where can you go to understand it? The British Museum aims to
be a museum of world culture—yet it throws no light on this
subject even though Communism was cooked up in its own reading
room! The British Museum has collected the odd Soviet pot and
Chinese poster, but like most museums, it collects in outmoded
categories, many laid down during the eighteenth century, and
misses the big story.
3. Museums are not just full of old things;
they're full of old thoughts. What's needed, even more than resources,
are changes in attitude and much, much more open debate.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Julian Spalding was director of art galleries
and museums for the cities of Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow
(including Kelvingrove Art Galleries and the Burrell Collection).
He established several award-winning museums—in particular,
in Sheffield, the Ruskin Gallery, in Manchester the People's Story,
and in Glasgow, the St Mungo Museum of Religious Art and Life,
the Gallery of Modern Art and the Open Museum. He created the
visual art programme for Glasgow's year as Cultural Capital of
Europe in 1990, and created the Glasgow Festival of Visual Arts
in 1996. He has chaired panels for the Arts Council of Great Britain
and the Crafts Council. He had to leave Glasgow when his post
was abolished, along with the directorships of Libraries, Sports
and Recreation and Performing Arts, and a leisure management system
was introduced. Since then he has worked for the National Museum
of Denmark and advised museums and galleries in many countries
around the world. In 2000, as Master of the Guild of St George
(the educational charity established by John Ruskin) he created
the nationwide Campaign for Drawing to raise awareness
of the value of drawing in everyday life and throughout education.
In 2002, he spelt out his global vision for the future of museums
in his book The Poetic Museum—Reviving Historic Collections
and, in 2003, his critique of modern art in his book The Eclipse
of Art—Tackling the Crisis in Art Today. His book The
Art of Wonder—A History of Seeing, which shows how mankind's
way of seeing the world has changed over time, was published in
Autumn 2005. He has broadcast frequently on radio and TV.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
ACTION
1. The Department of Culture Media and Sport
commissions a "blue-sky" study about the public potential
of Britain's collections.
(a) The Grand Projets of France and the new
Museum of World Cultures in Sweden are results of regroupings
of national collections, yet Britain has never even considered
such a possibility.
(b) Britain is so exceptionally rich in artefacts—and
so much is in store—that rethinking need not automatically
lead to an "or": it could lead to an "and".
It would be perfectly possible, for example, to create a museum
showing the historical lives of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, using
modern interpretive methods with only a few real artefacts (essential
to give authenticity) without depleting the existing displays
of the national museums at all. A museum tackling such a subject
in a lively, responsible way could easily attract two million
visitors a year—every school would want to come.
(c) Such a study would also need to address
practicalities. Ownership is not key issue because public collections
belong to the public. But, though public use is paramount, many
museums still regard their collections as their own, hiding retentiveness
behind a show of caring. But they need to take equal care of their
public. What's needed is a change of attitude. For example, since
lending increases access, museums should aim to lend. Directors,
therefore, only need to approve refusals to lend, not to approve
loans. The job of the conservator needs to be redefined: to make
collections safely accessible, not just to make them safe. Administrative
changes such as these enabled Glasgow to found the world's first
Open Museum—which let the public select artefacts from the
stores to show in their communities. The same principles can be
applied to public collections at large.
Museums and galleries are properly defensive
about the past, but their future can be opened up to debate, without
fear.
18 September 2006
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