Smithsonian targets $2.5 BILLION
PLUS: British Museum security tent to be scrapped
— In partnership with HdK
This edition also features: Mudlarking exhibition coming to London | Royal Academy head quits | Gen Z TikTok trend brings museums viral fame
Happy Friday.
On Monday we passed 100 days until Christmas. Yes, I don’t like it any more than you do. (Unless you’re one of those people who loves the festive season — I’m told they do exist.)
If you’re not a big Christmas fan than I’m afraid even the cultural world won’t be an escape for too much longer. The Charles Dickens Museum has just gone sale with tickets to its hugely popular Christmas Eve opening — mulled wine and mince pies guaranteed, three ghosts TBC.
Tickets for Christmas at Kew are also now available. This year’s expansive festive light trail will feature two world premiere installations, including “an illuminated helix-like shape, bathed in golden yellow light to evoke the warmth and joy of the festive season.” If that’s your sort of thing.
The 19th century Waddesdon Manor is also bringing back its annual festive makeover. This year the transformation — both inside and outside the manor house – is all inspired by the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Tom Piper MBE, one of Britain’s foremost theatre designers, is on board.
Other Christmas activities I’ve spotted include a wreath making workshop at the Museum of the Home in East London, Charles Dickens’s great-great- great-granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley is to give the National Portrait Gallery’s members a A Christmas Carol themed tour, and English Heritage basically can’t get enough as they have festivities planned at a tonne of sites including Battle Abbey and Eltham Palace.
Right, now that’s out the way, I won’t be mentioning it again until December.
Let’s get back to the here-and-now and dive into this week’s news!
— maxwell
— In partnership with HdK
Are you making this website error?
Too many cultural organisations fall into the same trap: they don’t know who actually visits their website.
“All too often, online visitors are treated as a homogenous group,” Hans de Kretser from arts and culture digital agency HdK told me. “But the reality is that like physical audiences, they are varied and with very different needs.”
It’s why Hans has programmed a new free webinar later this month that dives into culture segments. This is a universal system where you split audiences into different common groupings. You can then tailor your website to meet their specific needs, or craft messages that resonate more strongly.
The webinar will feature an overview of the main segments, and an exercise to help you assess your own audiences and which groups they fall into. You’ll then be guided on actionable tips for your website user journeys.
“It’s really simple, but it can pay huge dividends,” Hans adds.
Register for HdK’s free webinar on 26 September here.
Need To Know
Smithsonian’s wants billions
The largest fundraising campaign ever by a cultural organisation has been launched by the Smithsonian. The world’s biggest museum group wants to raise $2.5 BILLION over the next two years, in time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.
All of the group’s 21 museums are raising cash for specific projects, but there’s also institution-wide goals. These include establishing endowments to pay the salaries of the museum directors, and to make sure every single internship in the organisation is paid.
This strategy has been given the (surprisingly uninspiring) title Campaign for Our Shared Future, and it’s actually been conducted in private since 2018. Bank of America have already given to 13 of the museums, including gifts to establish two new museums: the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos has also funded the transformation of the National Air and Space Museum. (Read more)
Eyesore museum entrance axed
The eyesore security tents that all 6 million visitors to the British Museum must pass through is finally being scrapped, Director Nicholas Cullinan has announced. The white tents where bags are checked have been in place since 2016. But they should be gone by their 10-year anniversary in 2026, replaced with “an attractive new pavilion” designed by an emerging architect and selected by open competition. “We want the BM to be the most welcoming and accessible museum in the world,” Cullinan said of the plans.
The news came in an exclusive interview in the Sunday Times where he also said that he’ll ensure the museum’s scholarship will not be “conforming to a particular sort of political agenda.” This comment came in response to being asked if the British Museum under his leadership would follow Tate Britain and use ‘hyper-politically correct labelling.’
He also firmly reiterated his support for keeping England’s national museum’s free. “Free admission is one big reason why I have stayed in this country,” he said. “It makes our museums very special.” (Read more)
🔗 OPINION | Finally, we have a proud, unapologetic British Museum to end all the woke handwringing | Celia Walden in the Telegraph
Thames treasures exhibition
Historical objects that have washed up of the banks of the River Thames are to go on display in a first-of-its kind exhibition on mudlarking.
The London Museum Docklands will host Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s lost treasures from April. It will explore fascinating finds from the Thames foreshore, an internationally important archaeological site. Highlights include a 500-year-old a Tudor knitted cap, which is an extremely rare survival and will go on show for the first time. There’ll also be 18th century false teeth, Medieval spectacles and a pilgrim’s badge decorated with phalluses.
The role of mudlarks in uncovering this history will also be examined. The first records of the practice are from the mid-1800s. Today, it’s the preserve of licensed mudlarks (the license is super important with increasing illegal excavations taking place on the river.) Curator Kate Sumnall says the show will ultimately be about the “stories of generations of people who have visited the city or called it home.” (Read more)
IMHO, the London Museum Docklands has put on some of the best exhibitions in the city over the past decade, so this should be another knockout.
News from the UK
Churchill’s canvases 🎨 | The first British exhibition of the artworks of former prime minister Winston Churchill since his death is to open at the Wallace Collection in 2026. About 50 paintings are set to be displayed, including over 20 artworks secured from private collections. The London museum also revealed Caravaggio’s celebrated Victorious Cupid will also travel from Berlin to the UK for very first time next year. (Read more)
🔗 OPINION | Churchill was a great man – but a bad artist | Alastair Sooke in the Telegraph
Ace caff mastermind ☕️ | The first female Director of the V&A — Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll — has died aged 85. Her tenure saw Saatchi and Saatchi's famous “an ace caff with a rather nice museum attached” marketing campaign. Her time at the museum was marred though by internal civil war, with one of her predecessors writing to a newspaper calling her a “vulgar populist.” Current Director Tristram Hunt paid tribute to her success in shedding the institution’s “inward-looking reputation.“ (Read more)
What the Frick? 👋 | Axel Rüger has quit his role heading up the Royal Academy after five years. He will move to New York to become Director of the Frick Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of old masters. Rüger said the new job was “an irresistible proposition.” He had steered the institution through the pandemic — although that included slashing the workforce by 27% — and oversaw successful shows including last year’s Marina Abramović retrospective. (Read more)
No cap 📲 | The ‘Gen Z script’ trend on TikTok is popping off for UK museums, and nearly every venue has created their own brat version. But Beamish Museum in County Durham ate first, with their vid currently clocking 5.8m views and 1.1m likes. The Royal Armouries have slapped more recently though, with 5.2m views and video’s star curator has appeared across the media to talk about slaying. We stan. (Read more)
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News from around the world
France 🇫🇷 | In an unprecedented move, huge global commercial gallery Perrotin has donated 23 works of art — worth €6m — to the Centre Pompidou. 17 of the gallery’s artists donated works, including Bharti Kher and Elmgreen & Dragset. The works have been selected by the Pompidou’s director Xavier Rey, and no money is thought to have changed hands. Gallery founder Emmanuel Perrotin said his aim was for his artists “to leave an indelible trace.” (Read more)
Sudan 🇸🇩 | UNESCO said it was calling on "the public and the art market... in the region and worldwide to refrain" from trading in Sudanese items after widespread reports of looting of the country’s National Musuem. The United Nations's cultural body said the "threat to culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level” in Sudan which is in the grip of a civil war. The national antiquities authority believes lorries have transported the valuable works across the border. (Read more)
Spain 🇪🇸 | Madrid’s popular Sorolla Museum – the former home and workshop of the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla – is closing for renovations for almost two years. During the revamp — which will improve accessibility and environmental conditions — the museum’s collection of nearly 9,000 items will be moved to new storage facilities. Over 2,000 square metres will be added to the museum. Closure begins in October. (Read more)
Best of the rest
More theft | Another week, another museum heist. A display cabinet was broken into during opening hours at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery and four items including an Edwardian gold watch chain were snatched. (More)
Now unveiled | The latest sculpture on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth has been unveiled. Mexican artist Teresa Margolles’s work features hundreds of plaster casts of transgender and non-binary people’s faces. (More)
Paintings lost | A museum in Tehran has said 30 of its valuable paintings are missing after being handed over to “an unidentified entity” for an exhibition that never materialised. There was also no documentation regarding the supposed loan. (More)
Art outcry | It’s all kicking off in Hay-on-Wye as locals have complained to police about a painting of a naked women in a gallery window. But the gallery is refusing to take it down. The artist said it shows “how closed-minded people are.” (More)
Not loved | Michael Craig-Martin’s huge retrospective at the Royal Academy opens tomorrow, but it’s not impressed the critics. “You end by laughing at him” was the Guardian’s verdict. “A one-trick pony” said the Times. (More)
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story | Backlash over BBC story on value of Birmingham’s artworks
— Today’s edition took 7 hours to write. Donate so I can treat myself to a pint 🍻