The Politics of Museums

The Politics of Museums

New Directions in Cultural Policy Research Series Editors: Eleonora Belfiore, University of Warwick, UK, and Anna Upchurch, University of Leeds, UK New Directions in Cultural Policy Research encourages theoretical and empirical research which enriches and develops the field of cultural policy studies. Since its emergence in the 1990s, the academic field of cultural policy studies has expanded globally as the arts and popular culture have been re-positioned by city, regional, and national governments and international bodies, from the margins to the centre of social and economic development in both rhetoric and practice. The series invites contributions in any of the following: national and international cultural policies, arts policies, the politics of culture, cultural industries policies (the traditional arts such as performing and visual arts, crafts), creative industries policies (digital, social media, broadcasting and film, and advertising), urban regeneration and urban cultural policies, regional cultural policies, the politics of cultural and creative labour, the production and consumption of popular culture, arts education policies, cultural heritage and tourism policies, and the history and politics of media policies. The series will reflect current and emerging concerns of the field such as, for example, cultural value, community cultural development, cultural diversity, cultural sustainability, planning for the intercultural city, cultural planning and cultural citizenship. Titles include: David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley, David Lee and Melissa Nisbett CULTURE, ECONOMY AND POLITICS The Case of New Labour Lachlan MacDowall, Marnie Badham, Emma Blomkamp and Kim Dunphy MAKING CULTURE COUNT The Politics of Cultural Measurement Clive Gray THE POLITICS OF MUSEUMS New Directions in Cultural Policy Research Series Standing Order ISBN 978 1 137 53305 0 (hardback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

The Politics of Museums Clive Gray University of Warwick, UK

Clive Gray 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-49340-8 All rights reserved.noreproduction, copy or transmission of this publication maybemadewithout written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is theglobal academic imprint of theabove companies andhas companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-57753-8 ISBN 978-1-137-49341-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137493415 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

To Mum and Dad, Joan and Ron, and to my sister, Claire

Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements ix x 1 Museums and Politics: An Introduction 1 Introduction 1 What are museums for? (Part I) 3 Museums and power 8 Museums and ideology 13 Museums and legitimacy 18 Museums and rationalities 23 Politics and museums 26 2 The International Politics of Museums 29 Introduction 29 It s the Same the Whole World Over... 30 Museums: International statements and instruments 36 Globalisation and museums 42 Economic globalisation and museums 44 Political globalisation and museums 46 Universal museums and practices and museums collections 51 Conclusions 59 3 The National Politics of Museums 64 Introduction 64 What are museums for? (Part II) 65 Are national museums politically important? 69 Politics and the exercise of power 77 Power and the exercise of control 80 Instrumentalism: The symbolic uses of national museums 86 Instrumentalism: The functional uses of national museums 89 National politics and museum practices 96 Conclusions 102 4 The Local Politics of Museums 104 Introduction 104 Power, control and the museum 106 vii

viii Contents Power and management in the museum 109 Power, rationality and legitimacy in the museum 112 The power of museums 120 Mobilising the power of museums 125 Museums and the exercise of control 134 Ideology and legitimation strategies in the local museum 141 Conclusions 147 5 Museums as Political Institutions 150 Introduction 150 Who arethe key actors? 150 Which are the key organisations? 159 How are interests represented in the museum? 162 Are museums important? 165 Conclusions 169 Bibliography 171 Index 185

Figures and Tables Figures 5.1 Participants in museum politics 157 Tables 3.1 National government expenditure on museums in England, 2001/2 2013/14 73 3.2 Scottish government expenditure on museums in Scotland, 2001/2 2013/14 75 3.3 Most visited museums and galleries 87 ix

Acknowledgements Many thanks in the first instance to all of those toilers in museums who have talked to me about the experiences and practices of their everyday work. My promise to preserve your anonymity prevents me from thankingyou individually, but I am extremelygratefully to all of you for giving me your time and for your willingness to answer my questions and promptings. It would be perverse in a book of this sort, however, for me not to mention individual museums that I have enjoyed visiting (usually not for reasons of picking the brains of their staff). So, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester (my local museum) should be much more widely recognised for its expressionist art collection (and Mrs. Conder in Pink) and local dinosaur fossils (long live the Barrow kipper, I say). The best home-made cakes are to be found in Wolverhampton Art Gallery, although the best place to eat is a toss-up between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wallace Collection. St Paul de Vence is the most scenically located that I have visited, even if you do have to walk a bit to get to the best bits of the walled town. The Rodin Museum has the most impressive garden if only for The Thinker, although the totem pole at the Horniman takes some beating. Every museum and art gallery, however, has something worth visiting and I still have a long list of places around the world that I would like to visit maybe oneday Chrissie and Iwill get to them all. Thanks are also due to people from the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick particularly David Wright and Ele Belfiore for talking to me about the horrors of book writing (and that is the only example of irony that there is in this book), and how progress has been going in our various endeavours. In addition, Liz Brennan, Sarah Shute and Paula Wilkins have answered all of my technical questions and have been of inestimable help in answering my other questions concerning my administrative duties, both of which have made my job easier than it would otherwise have been. Thanks also to Charlotte Woodhead and Eric Jensen from Warwick University, Andrew Newman from Newcastle University, Lisanne Gibson from Leicester University and Vikki McCall from Stirling University who have all told me things about museums and museum practices that are derived from their own work and which have informed my own, and who have shared references, coffee, tea and cake at appropriate times. The librarians at x

Acknowledgements xi Warwick (particularly Richard Perkins, the only person whose e-mails I laugh at for the right reasons) and Leicester Universities were extremely helpful in pointing me in the right directions for information: many thanks to the staff in both institutions. Thanks also to my students, past and present, who have heard some of the arguments and ideas in this book already your questions and patience have been much appreciated. Chrissie, Caitlin and Laurie have been the usual supporting cast and have provided a welcome reminder that there are more things in life than book writing (even if they do not entirely share my particular enthusiasms in poetry, novels, history, crossword puzzles, 1970s/80s British jazz-rock/canterbury music and jazz in general). This time, however, I am dedicating a book to my parents and sister. Mum and Dad took my sister and me to museums from a very early age I still have vivid recollections of paintings by John Mad Martin and Turner (of course) in the Tate, railway carriages in the transport museums in Swindon and Clapham (now all gone to York), musical instruments and shrunken heads in the Horniman, and dinosaur fossils and the dodo in the Natural History Museum. It has taken me a long time to get round to this book but Mum, Dad and Claire deserve my thanks and gratitude for helping to form my enthusiasm for all things museal, and while Mum and Dad are dead Claire continues to beat her own path go get em, Claire, and never give up.