173-year glass ceiling smashed
First woman to lead National Galleries of Scotland
Also in this edition: Perth Museum’s Jacobite treasures, fears for Museum of Making after flooding, Elton John’s V&A photo exhibition, online abuse scuppers Australia’s new museum, David Shrigley pulps 6,000 copies of The Da Vinci Code
Happy Friday.
I’m writing this from the cafe of Margate’s Turner Contemporary gallery. I’m here to see Mark Leckey’s new immersive exhibition In the Offering. I haven’t been into it yet, as the sun-lit dining space looking out over the harbour was too much of a pull. Everytime I come to this seaside town I realise why Turner came here. The light is different.
In a recent edition of this newsletter I wrote on the calls from a local councillor to start charging for entry to the gallery — it’s currently totally free — and on local resident Tracey Emin’s rebuff to that suggestion. Her argument was that it pulls in thousands of visitors to the town as a free attraction. Today it’s certainly very busy, with visitors of all ages. Would these people still be here if there was a charge?
Broadly, I always come down on the side that free entry is sacrosanct, especially when taxpayers money is involved. But that is increasingly difficult to maintain when finances continue to become so precarious. And as I wrote last week, corporate sponsorship has its many challenges outside the capital so there aren’t easy alternatives.
Who knows what the direction of travel is, but for now I’m sure the free entry is one factor that’s keeping this place abuzz. When I next return here, the light will still be free, but the art maybe not so much.
Maxwell
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Need To Know
200 days to 200 years
The National Gallery has begun the countdown to its 200th birthday with big announcements marking 200 days to go until B Day.
Details of the twelve birthday exhibitions — which will take place simultaneously across Britain and each centred on a masterpiece in the Gallery’s collection — have been revealed. The shows that particularly caught my eye were the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool displaying The Rokeby Venus and challenging traditional readings of the painting by setting it alongside unexpected artworks by women and nonbinary artists; and the National Library of Wales using Canaletto’s The Stonemason’s Yard to highlight Wales’ role as a safe haven for the NG’s collection during WWII.
The second announcement was that the Gallery will release two big film features in UK cinemas in 2024, both as part of the hugely successful Exhibition on Screen strand. One will capture the Bicentenary exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers which is shaping up to be this year’s Vermeer. The other will tell the story of the collection through the eyes of the NG’s staff and some famous faces. (Read more)
Treasures for Perth Museum
It’ll be one of the biggest new museum openings in Britain in 2024, and now we know when you can visit. The £27m new Perth Museum — which will tell the story of Scotland through the story of Perth as the nation’s first capital — will open to the public on Easter Weekend.
The star item will undoubtedly be the Stone of Destiny which is used in the coronation of monarchs and which is returning to Perthshire for the first time in over 700 years. But announced this week was another major highlight: Bonnie Prince Charlie's sword which will be on public display for the first time, and will make its first return to Scotland since it was made in Perth in 1739. It’ll be on loan from a private collection. A newly-acquired Jacobite wine glass will also go on display.
The UK Government has given £10m to the project, and Minister for Scotland, Malcolm Offord, said “these Jacobite treasures are an integral part of Scottish history, and visitors from around the world will come to Perth” to learn about them. (Read more)
Fears for Museum of Making
The outlook for Derby’s £18m Museum of Making is “very, very severe” after flooding caused by Strom Babet has resulted in significant damage and the museum’s temporary closure.
Speaking to BBC Radio Derby, the museum’s director of operations, Alex Rock said: “Our funding position is in a really precarious state” due to the restrictions on income generating activities. He said that the loss of tens of thousands of pounds worth of revenue was “unprecedented.” The museum has now launched a fundraising campaign to try to help with the recovery.
Housed in the former Derby Silk Mill, a UNESCO heritage site regarded as the world’s first modern factory, the museum was somewhat prepared. Most of the exhibits were deliberately housed on the upper floors, which has saved them from the floodwater. But there was “quite a lot of damage to equipment and infrastructure” on the ground floor according to the museum’s Executive Director Tony Butler. He added that “It’s not lost on me that this is where the industrial revolution was born and now we are bearing the brunt of climate change.” (Read more)
News from the UK
Another oil protest | Two men from the group Just Stop Oil have been arrested after vandalising the Natural History Museum’s current star exhibition: the Titanosaur skeleton on loan from Argentina. Both men were medics, and used a paint fountain to coat the exhibit which was forced to temporarily close. It comes a day after the same group vandalised the 200-year old Wellington Arch monument in orange paint. (Read more)
📺WATCH: Three arrests after Just Stop Oil protesters spray orange paint on London's Wellington Arch 👇
Glass ceiling smashed | Two big announcements from the National Galleries of Scotland this week. It’s appointed its first female Director in its 173 year history. Anne Lyden will take up the role on 1 January 2024, following Sir John Leighton’s 17-year tenure. It’s also been granted planning permission for a new art storage and research facility in Edinburgh. The Art Works will be home for more than 120,000 works of art in Scotland’s national collection.
Hunterian withdraws remains | The remains of a stillborn Bambuti baby have been removed from the Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum catalogue. The move comes after criticism from novelist Nadifa Mohamed who presents an upcoming documentary examining the history of human zoos. A spokesperson for the museum said the remains had not been on display “for 20 years” but that it was removing access for research while it establishes if the documentary contributors were formally calling for repatriation. (Read more)
Are you ready? | I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words that 300 rare photographs on loan from the private collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish will go on display in a major exhibition at the V&A next year. Fragile Beauty will span from the 1950s to today and is set to be the largest temporary photography exhibition in the museum’s history. It follows John’s and Furnish’s major gift to the V&A’s photography centre which was significant enough to get a gallery named after them. (Read more)
Ghost history hunt | Historic England is asking people this Halloween to help them record the ‘ghost signs’ still found on buildings across England, and to submit them to create an online map. Ghost signs are hand-painted advertising signs from the late 19th century and are preserved despite a building’s change of use. The organisation also hopes this special ghost hunt will help bring people closer to the everyday heritage around them. (Read more)
News from around the world
Australia | Plans for a new £1.5m museum of natural history in New South Wales have been scrapped after the scientist behind it received months of online abuse. The state government had already provided funding to build the Gulgong Natural History Museum, but palaeontologist Michael Durrant pulled the plug after online posts discrediting his career appeared from opponents to the project. Durrant said he liked the town, but that he “never realised there were such d*ckheads” there. (Read more)
🔗 MORE: Fossil fight: How a rural NSW town’s stoush over a museum got ‘personal’ (Sydney Morning Herald)
Spain | “The only museum in the world” dedicated to censored art opened in Barcelona yesterday. Work by artists including Pablo Picasso, Ai Weiwei and Robert Mapplethorpe make up the collection of the Museum of Forbidden Art which features 200 works that have previously been denounced, attacked or removed from display. Founder Tatxo Benet calls it “a triumph of freedom of expression.” (Read more)
USA | Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum is planning a £37m expansion, exclusively for events. The new building — which would increase the institution’s footprint by more than 60% — would be situated on an existing museum car park, and would include a concert venue. It’s part of the museum’s Pop District initiative, which plans to take over six surrounding streets and turn them into an arts neighbourhood. (Read more)
Greece | Ahead of December’s centenary since her birth, Athens yesterday opened a brand new museum dedicated to opera superstar Maria Callas. Housed in neoclassical building in the heart of the city, highlight objects of the over 1,300 exhibits on display include a sample of her hair, and the dress she wore after the memorable 1955 performance of Verdi's La Traviata in Milan's La Scala. (Read more)
Best of the rest
More Moore to come | Leeds’ Henry Moore Institute will close next month until the summer as it carries out its first refurbishment in its 30-year history. Internal spaces will be revamped to offer a better visitor experience. (More)
MacGregor backs Trust | Former British Museum Director Neil MacGregor has backed the National Trust’s decision not to restore the fire-ravaged Clandon Park. He argues the stately home’s ruins now tell a new story, that of the history and craft of building. (More)
Bigger and better | Yes, the National Portrait Gallery is STILL GROWING. It’s turning a former Victorian toilet block and West End ticket kiosk into a new cafe on Charing Cross Road. Freebies will be given on opening day: 1 November. (More)
Overnight with Hirst? | Ever fancied kipping with some Damien Hirsts? [OK, humour me] Well now you can stay with SEVENTY FIVE of them in London’s most expensive hotel suite in Claridge’s. One snag: it’s £60,000 a night. (More)
Pulp the code | Artist David Shrigley has pulped 6,000 copies of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code and republished them as George Orwell's novel 1984. Tomorrow, 1,250 copies of Shrigley's 1984 edition will go on sale in Swansea’s Oxfam. (More)
Mummies in museums | Is it ethical to display Egyptian mummies? We the Museum — the podcast for museum workers — explores this question in their latest episode. Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.*
*This is a sponsored post
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