MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES
CULTURE CLUB
Saving Britain from recession and sharing its culture with the world is the aim of the Cultural Capital manifesto. The National Portrait Gallery’s Sandy Nairne tells Kathleen Whyman how the cultural leaders aim to achieve this
What is the Cultural Capital manifesto?
Cultural Capital: A Manifesto for the Future is a document we produced from the National Museum Directors’ Conference. It rep- resents all the UK’s national museums and brings together all the arguments and ideas as to why we think the work of the national museums should be invested in and considered very seriously. We believe culture should be at the heart of plans to plot Britain’s recovery from recession. All 16 British national museums are involved from National Museums Liverpool, through to the Natural History Museum, the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery.
What are the objectives? The central objective is to get the government to take seriously the contribution we’ve made to the economy in both the fi scal sense and to the wider learning economy. Education and learning work outside the classroom in museums as much as they work inside. We also want to reinforce our contribution to the creative indus-
tries. We have a huge input into helping designers, musicians and writers in developing their creativity. We’re a fantastic resource and we always want to get that message across to government.
What do you hope to achieve?
We want to play our part in taking the UK forward. We’re well aware that there are fi nancial challenges and we’re interested in funding
National Museums Liverpool has developed initiatives working with different communities
Does the change in government affect anything?
We know we’ll be dealing with slightly lower levels of public sup- port. But what we argue, and have argued for years, is that the longer term aim of the tourism and cultural economy and the learning economy need the national museums as a really effective, powerful part of that.
What’s it been like to be on the inside of the process? I’m always interested in how any museum, not just national muse- ums, can work with others. I’m keen to make sure the wider life around the gallery and the ways in which we can contribute is in a community of cultural institutions. We’re much stronger in this country by trying to work together.
What are you working on?
We’ll be talking closely with the new ministers and discussing with them what’s happening and about public fi nancial issues. We’re also looking toward the Cultural Olympiad and 2012 and looking beyond that to restore investment and development in the sector.
How does culture currently benefi t Britain?
Culture is a vital part of this country’s future. Not just because culture is always there, but because we’ve become a really good creative country in the way of recognising that creativity runs from
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obviously, but also in the bigger picture – the future of this country. We want the museums to be contributing to a better Britain.
Who’s coordinating the manifesto? The coordinator is Kate Bellamy, the executive secretary for the National Museum Directors Conference. We have a team of three people who coordinate between all the national museums and helps us think how we make the public demonstrations of our work and how we work in advocacy and government.
How do you work together?
We’ve all recalled good case studies of a situation where we had a particular impact in making change with working with communities or in a new area of education or opening up new audiences. We pool that information to demonstrate the importance of our work. Examples include the new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum. It’s not just about display, it’s about research and learn- ing, about schools being able to bring more groups in to view those collections in new and innovative ways. National Museums Liverpool has developed some excellent initiatives working with different communities, which think about the issues concerning Liverpool with cultural change and diversity in Liverpool.
© EAMONN MCCABE
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