Civic Museums in Civil Society: an English PerspectiveIain WatsonDirector, Tyne & Wear Archives & MuseumsBoard Member, Museums Association @iainawatson

What is the Museums Association?

• “The Museums Association champions the values of museums to society and supports and develops the people who work in them.”

• Oldest museums association in world – formed in 1889

• Over 7,600 individual members

• Over 600 institutional members

• Over 250 corporate members

• Mission: Inspiring Museums to Change Lives

• Vision: Inclusive, participatory and socially engaged museums at the heart of their communities

• Values: Inclusivity, diversity and equality

Museum Taskforce

Arts Council Goals

Goal 1: excellenceGoal 2: for everyoneGoal 3: resilience and sustainabilityGoal 4: diversity and skillsGoal 5: children and young people

A Museums Sector in Crisis?

• National Museums and ACE protected in 2015

Spending Review

• New buildings can give impression of boom

times

BUT

• -31% in real-terms cut to cultural funding by

English local authorities since 2010

• Ongoing severe cuts to local authority

budgets to 2020

• Museums are a non-statutory service –

vulnerable to budget cuts

The impact of cuts

• 64 museums closed in UK since 2010 – and more at risk

• Reduced opening hours • Loss of expertise• Less social outreach work and fewer school visits• Museum collections and buildings at risk

Transformers

Museums review

1. State of the nation report2. Local and regional museums3. Government sponsored museums

Museum Taskforce

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

So where is Tyne & Wear?

Tyne and Wear (population: c.1.1 million)

North East England (population: c.2.2 million)

9 museums

Regional archive

World Heritage Site

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Our Mission

18

Creative visionCreative vision

Working together to make sense of the

world through compelling stories of art,

science, culture and heritage

19

…a few key facts

www.twmuseums.org.uk

Stephenson Railway MuseumBilly'Billy' - built in Newcastle around 1826 by Robert Stephenson & Company was built three years before the more famous Rocket and it is one of the oldest locomotives in the world.

Discovery MuseumTurbinia

In 1894 Charles Parsons built the world’s first steam turbine powered ship, Turbinia, which changed the face of maritime history and in 1897 was the fastest ship in the world. At 32 metres long, she now dominates the central hall at Discovery Museum.

Tyne & Wear

Archives

Mauretania at full speed on

the Measured Mile, 1907

(the most famous ship built

on Tyneside). Part of an

important shipbuilding

collection recognised as

part of the UNESCO

Memories of the World

register.

Laing Art GalleryLaus Veneris (1873=1875) by Sir Edward Burne Jones

This outstanding painting in the Laing Art Gallery’s Pre-Raphaelite collection painting shows the legendary court of Venusberg (city of love). The artist, Edward Burne-Jones was the leader of the second phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Great North Museum: HancockBuilding inscription from Hadrian’s Wall, Milecastle 38

This inscription because proves that the Roman Wall was built on the orders of Hadrian, whilst the name Nepos dates the stone and therefore the wall to AD122-4.

“This work of the Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus (was built by) the Second Legion Augusta under Aulus Platorius Nepos, proprietorial legate”

Hatton GalleryKurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn Wall

Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn Wall is one of the UK’s international art treasures and is on permanent display at the Hatton Gallery. Created in the Lake District in 1947-48, it was the last great work of this influential 20th century artist, and is the only surviving example of his ‘Merzbauten’ series.

Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet by Jacopo TintorettoAn outstanding work is the major painting by the Venetian artist Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto (1518-1594). On display in the main gallery, Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet was originally painted for the church of San Marcuolo in Venice, eventually given to St Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle and purchased by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums in 1986.

Segedunum Roman FortRoman stone toilet seat Segedunum is significant in itself, as excavations unearthed definitive proof that members of Rome’s cavalry lived in adjacent rooms to their mounts. This is thought to be the only stone known toilet seat from Roman Britain.

South Shields Roman Fort ArbeiaThe Regina Tombstone This expensive tombstone found at Arbeia to Regina from husband Barates, who freed her then married her, shows Latin and Aramaic inscriptions providing evidence for the mixing of cultures 1800 years ago.

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery Jobling’s GibbetA grisly reminder of criminal punishment in the not too distant past, William Jobling was the last man in England to be gibbeted in 1832. Charged with murder, William Jobling was sentenced to death by hanging and his body to be publicly gibbeted close to the scene of the crime on Jarrow Slake.

Thank Youwww.museumsassociation.org

Iain.watson@twmuseums.org.ukwww.twmuseums.org.uk

@iainawatson