tjj
|
Edited Feb 04, 2017, 09:48
Do museums have a future?
Feb 04, 2017, 09:46
|
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/feb/02/drop-uk-museum-attendance
Was reading there has been a big drop in museum visits - the journalist not sure about the reason, suggests we have become demoralised as a country or perhaps worried about terrorist attacks in the big cities like London.
My own town has seen a slashing of library services though there is a proposal for a state of the art new museum/art gallery (dependent of course on Lottery funding). By chance a couple of days ago, I visited the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury - it had a small but amazing prehistory section which astonished and pleased me. Entry was free in that instance which is not always the case - as with the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes for example.
|
thesweetcheat
|
Re: Do museums have a future?
Feb 04, 2017, 10:32
|
There's no doubt that lack of funding won't help, but in itself it doesn't explain lowering of visitor numbers. I guess you'd rea?ly need to get down into the detail.
The big city museum will always account for the huge bulk of the numbers. They are more likely to be affected by foreign tourism habits, the threat of terrorism and the particular exhibitions that are on. I love the BM and NHM in particular, but the cost of trains into London make trips prohibitively expensive so we only tend to go to see particular exhibitions ( which are usually ticketed even if the museum itself is free). My own income has steadily dropped in real terms since 2010, so these trips are now a luxury and have to be weighed against other stuff. If I lived in London I'd go much more just to wander the galleries. We went to Birmingham and Edinburgh museums in October and both are amazing.
The smaller more rural museums have a harder job because there's no passing tourist audience in significant numbers, especially foreign tourists. They have more limited exhibits, although sharing and touring from other museums will help (eg the Dippy tour this year). But as in the cities, everyone is getting poorer. The smaller museums are harder put to sustain free admission because there's no cafe or giftshop to recoup the costs like in say NHM. And there's less ability to stage high tech interactive exhibits that maybe everyone wants or expects now. It's very sad but in the current economic climate it's unlikely to improve.
|
spencer
|
Re: Do museums have a future?
Feb 04, 2017, 10:53
|
|
I do wonder if people are becoming decreasingly a w a r e of museums. Museums are history. Is history taught enough or properly enough in schools now ? Pass. I don't know, but wonder if part of the reason for the decline is a generational mindset. Are we also over-reliant on television or other media, lessening our desire to see the physical artifact?
|
tjj
|
Edited Feb 04, 2017, 15:27
Re: Do museums have a future?
Feb 04, 2017, 15:25
|
I must admit these days am much more reluctant to travel up to London for a museum/gallery trip finding the Underground and the large numbers of people rushing around stressful.
Although believe in living in the present and not referencing the near past too much, the second half of the 20th Century now seems to have had a lot going for it - until the Thatcher years that is, when everything gradually started to unravel.
My feeling is that the small, specialised museums such as the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes (which does charge an entry fee) will survive. In the context of the Guardian article someone from the Richard Jefferies Museum, which is local to me, commented that they are thriving. I admit I haven't been for some time but I think they now focus on nature activities for children in their quite spacious garden (it was the house where RJ grew up). Most museums are now getting children involved with hands on stuff such as dressing up - perhaps this would not be as viable in the big city museums for all sorts of reasons, not least security.
|
