BREAKING NEWS: Wellcome Collection shuts
Covid situation shutters London museum "until further notice"
It’s Friday - hurrah! But it’s the last maxwell museums news round up of 2021 - boo!
Yes, this news digest of the week’s top museum stories has landed in inboxes every Friday throughout the year. It’ll take a break for Christmas but will return on 7 January 2022. You can however stay updated with breaking stories by following me on Twitter @maxwellmuseums where I’ll still be sharing news throughout the holiday period.
But this is not the final edition of the newsletter for 2021. Next week I’ll be sending you my last interview edition of the year, with an exciting 2021 year-in-review vibe. Look out for that in your inbox on Wednesday. (And if you’re putting the OOO on your work email from today, you could always add your personal address to make sure you receive it. Use the box below.)
The news is not great right now I’ll admit, as evidenced by this week’s top story. But let’s dive in anyway.
Maxwell
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This week’s top story
The UK is currently reeling from record-breaking covid infection numbers, fueled by the Omicron variant. It is only expected to get worse as we approach Christmas. In a staggering repeat of mid-March 2020, the public messaging is recommending people cut their social contact and work from home, yet government is offering zero new financial support for businesses who are seeing punters choosing to stay away. As Politico’s London Playbook states this morning: “the papers are full of tales of the cancellations hitting restaurants and bars, especially in the capital” and that “Labour’s reading of [the] data is that one in every five businesses reported they were at risk of going under.”
Museums are facing the same crisis. I tweeted earlier this week that many small museums must be wondering if it’s more economical to voluntarily shut up shop for the next few weeks if visitors stop coming. And breaking news as you read this is that London’s Wellcome Collection has just announced it will close TONIGHT for the foreseeable future due to the growing covid threat. The Garden Museum has also decided to bring forward it’s Christmas closure. I expect more will follow in the coming days.
How bad could it get? Lisa Ollerhead, Director of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) has told maxwell museums that they are already seeing independent museums reporting changing visitor behavior due to the new messaging around protecting Christmas. As a result, she is “concerned about museums going under” telling me that “losing Christmas income is really difficult and a lot of museums will be crunching the numbers in the new year and potentially finding themselves back on the edge.” While AIM is in contact with the DCMS and Arts Council England about potential additional support, “it will be challenging to make a case for new money given other demands on public funds.” In the meantime they’ll be looking at what’s left over from the £300 million announced for the culture sector in March, as well as what other culture funding bodies might be able to make available from their own resources.
This is a fast moving situation. But it looks like museums are about to begin a very precarious few weeks.
This week’s other stories
Time Out has named the 22 best new things to do in the world in 2022 - and it’s PACKED with museums and galleries (too right). The number one spot goes to Maison Gainsbourg, a new museum in Paris dedicated to French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Other highlights include at number six the new National Museum of Norway, and the new Museum of Broadway in New York is at number seven. Mail Online
The British Museum’s annual Treasure and Portable Antiquities Scheme reports were launched this week, highlighting the recent historical treasures that have been found by the public. Arts minister Lord Parkinson praised some of the “treasure” seekers who have waived their right to reward for their finds, which has allowed museums to acquire them for free. Express and Star
HRH The Prince of Wales has become the first Royal Patron of the Museum of London. The heir to the throne has long campaigned to save Victorian architecture, so he takes on the role as the Museum creates its huge new home in the 19th-century Smithfield Market. The Daily Telegraph
V&A East has topped out. Oo-er. The under-constriction new museum in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has now reached it’s full height of 42.5m. Hackney Citizen
Britain's richest man has helped save a priceless collection of literary treasures for the UK nation. Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik donated half of the £15 million needed to buy the Honresfield Library Collection, which includes notebooks from the Bronte sisters and letters from Jane Austen. The works will now be shared by the British Library and the Bronte Museum. Daily Mail
The Louvre will have to get the paintbrushes out again, as they’ve agreed to remove the new ‘burnt red’ walls of a gallery housing a Cy Twombly mural. The artist’s foundation complained that the gallery’s new renovation (and the new colour scheme) compromised the work, so they filed a lawsuit against the museum. But now they are both “pleased” to have “reached an agreement” i.e. the Louvre will repaint it back to more neutral colours. Wonder how pleased they actually are. ART News
Another exciting capital project from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has just begun a $70m renovation of its African, ancient American and Oceanic art galleries. The 40,000 sq. ft galleries will be reworked to better contextualise the collection, and will aim to address the “complex story of cultural development over the last 5,000 years.” The Art Newspaper
And finally
The Times has picked its best (and worst) exhibitions of the year. Included as one of the very best is Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint at the British Museum, which I did the PR for. It’s a hard agree from me.