The Soane Museum reopens!
PLUS: praise for Artemisia, shrugs for the Summer Exhibition
Hello. Yes it is Tuesday, and yes I am sending you a newsletter. If you’ve missed recent editions (I’m not angry, just disappointed) then you won’t know the new schedule. Tuesdays are the day I send the new maxwell museums magazine! This is an edition of the newsletter with all the non-news features: so my regular interview slot, what’s on, and a round up of recent reviews. (For your museum news fix, that comes at the end of every week in the friday briefing.) It’s all aimed to make my newsletter more digestible. Got that? Good.
We’re just going to dive in to this edition as there’s some good stuff here. PLEASE hit respond in your email browser after you’ve finished reading to let me know what you think of the new format. I would love to know your thoughts.
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review roundup
Your at-a-glance guide to some of the freshest exhibitions.
Artemisia at the National Gallery, London
Bodies rush towards you out of the canvas, anguished faces, huge hands, explosions of blood. It’s a thrill ride from beginning to end, a Scorsese film shot in 17th-century Italy’s meanest streets, and it starts with a blow right to the heart. The Guardian
What paintings they are. As with one of her stylistic antecedents, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi was forgotten about for an awfully long time, and though there’s a tiresomely obvious reason for that, looking at these you can’t help but think the establishment must have been blind as well as bigoted. Evening Standard
Artemisia, sponsored by Intesa Sanpaolo, is on until 24 January 2021
The Summer Exhibition 2020 at the Royal Academy, London
Dependably, it is nonsense: absurdly disorganised, and full of art that shouldn’t be on display…I lost hope when I reached a painting of the Prime Minister with his head in an EU-made washing machine. It’s one of dozens of works that are unacceptably bad. The Telegraph
The show is probably disappointing, but look on the bright side. This year’s Summer Exhibition is at best subtle, at worst a bit boring — and surely that bodes well for next year. It is then that the results of our feverish lockdown creativity will finally come through. The Times
The Summer Exhibition, sponsored by Insight Investment, is on until 3 January 2021
Jael and Sisera Artemisia Gentileschi, dated 1620. © Szépmüvészeti Múzeum / Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
interview
If you’ve ever visited Sir John Soane’s Museum in central London, you’ll know that it was not built for the era of social distancing. Narrow corridors, tiny rooms and multiple passageways that are no wider than the average shoulder-span, it’s England’s smallest national museum in more ways than one. So it’s no wonder it’s taken longer to reopen post-lockdown. But last weekend, open it did. After working at the Soane for 4 years, I was fascinated to know what the new experience will be for visitors to a London townhouse that Soane deliberately tried to pack with as much of antiquity - including an Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus - as he could. So I spoke to Rebecca Hossain, the new Director of Commercial and Operations at the much-loved museum.
Congratulations on reopening the Soane Museum! How does it feel?
Amazing! It has taken months of careful planning and it is wonderful to see it all come together remarkably smoothly, safely for our visitors, and with the confidence of our excellent front of house team and volunteers who are ready to welcome visitors back.
What can visitors expect in a visit during the 'new normal'?
Like many museums and galleries, we have had to rethink everything. We now have a one way route with visitors entering through Soane’s front door for the first time in many years. Visitors do need to pre-book a free timed ticket through our website. We have hand sanitiser available at key locations, an enhanced cleaning regime, and PPE provided to our staff and volunteers. We have expanded the footprint of the Museum shop to allow for safe browsing and installed a till guard. Alongside these critical Covid-secure measures, we have worked to ensure the visitor experience is as good as ever: the conservation team have cleaned artworks and artefacts so that the Museum sparkles, we took this opportunity to return four beautiful ivory chairs in the Picture Room that Soane originally placed there in 1824, as the planes will not be opened for the foreseeable future. We have additional interpretation as part of our exhibition Degrees of Truth by artists Langlands & Bell, and have given our front of house team additional training to welcome and provide our visitors with a memorable and magical experience. As one commentator noted to me ‘it is safe, but it is still the Soane.’
The Soane is perhaps one the trickiest spaces to make covid-secure due to the narrow space. What was the most challenging aspect of getting it ready?
Calculating the Covid-secure room and space capacities was complex – especially as some areas have a capacity of 1! Even doing walk arounds to plan the new route was challenging due to the intimate spaces.
The Dome Area in Sir John Soane’s Museum. Photo: Gareth Gardner
What has been the response so far?
Visitor feedback has been extremely positive – with comments on how the visitor welcome and experience is not compromised by the safe measures introduced, and how the staff have been so knowledgeable and informative. Ticket bookings have been steady. We are welcoming a mixture of first time visitors and regulars who have been waiting for us to reopen.
How will the reduction in international visitors to the UK affect the museum? And will you suffer financially like nearly all museums?
Tourists play an important part in our visitor demographic, like all cultural institutions, but we are working on reaching out to new and wider audiences to ensure we are accessible and relevant to everyone. We are developing new and special digital ways of visiting and experiencing the Soane from home so that we continue to connect with our international and national audiences, who may not be able to visit just yet. Unfortunately we will suffer financially, and are looking at creative collaborations as well as methods of encouraging donations and add on sales as part of the timed ticket booking process on our website. Visitors now exit via our beautiful shop so we hope they will wish to take a piece of the Soane home with them (from the shop of course!)
You're relatively new to the Museum. How was it starting just before lockdown, and what are your plans for the role?
I was yet to complete my induction when we found ourselves planning to close the Museum down in my fourth week. I know everyone thinks they work in the best team, but there is something quite unique at the Soane: there is a commitment and a love for the founder Sir John Soane, the history and collection of world class artefacts, the collection and works of art in the Museum. This made it easy and natural for everyone to unite in closing the Museum safely, ensuring it was maintained during our 28 week closure period and to ensure a successful reopening and recovery of the Soane. Honestly speaking, the plans I had pre-lockdown have had to change and new ones for my role are still being devised; my watchwords as we look to the future in this unusual time are: flexibility, sustainability and innovation.
Book your free ticket to Sir John Soane’s Museum here
what’s on
3 of the best new shows from around the globe.
Bruce Nauman at Tate Modern, London - clowns, cages and lots of neon in the first major London exhibition in 20 years for the ground-breaking artist. Opens tomorrow
BP Portrait Award 2020 at Aberdeen Art Gallery - the only chance to catch the annual portrait competition outside London this year, it’ll be presented in the new BP Galleries at the Scottish venue. Opens 10 October
Barbara Kasten: Scenarios at Aspen Art Museum, Colorado - celebrating Kasten’s recent expansive body of sculptural non-photographic work and video installations. Opens October 15
and finally
The Royal Opera House has announced plans to sell a David Hockney portrait it owns to try and help plug its eye-watering covid-deficit. Charlotte Higgins writing in the Guardian looks at the ‘jobs vs assets’ debate currently swirling, and explains how “the global super-rich” will be the only winners in the end.
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