Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has launched a fundraising campaign to buy the Anglo-Saxon treasure Hoard in a bid to keep the find in the Midlands.
The museum, together with Stoke-on-Trent Potteries Museums needs to raise the funds within four months to meet Treasure Act guidelines. The Hoard has yet to be valued but is estimated to be worth several million pounds.
The campaign has the support of the British Museum, which will value and auction the 1,500 pieces of buried treasure in November.
The Hoard, which dates from the 7th Century, is the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found. It was uncovered by metal detectorists in a field in Staffordshire. On show at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until October 13, it attracted 10,500 people to see it in the first three days.
The museum believes that money from the Heritage Lottery Fund or the Art Fund will not be enough to buy the treasure and is seeking donations from charitable trusts, benefactors and the general public.
A new festival will showcase some unusual partnerships between the arts world and the academic one. Patrick Kelly reports
The crowded festival calendar has an new entrant - but this is an arts festival with a twist. The events at Inside Out will combine painters with philosophers, university dons with dub poets, computer gamers with choristers and geographers with gamelan players.
Not only will regular cultural venues like the National Portrait Gallery and Kings Place play host to events, but so too will university campuses. Inside Out, which will run from October 19-25, is the UK’s first-ever festival of higher education and the arts. Inside Out,
Each event will involve academics, alumni and students from the universities in different ways –with figures such as Andrew Motion, Blake Morrison, A.C Grayling, Michael Portillo and Orlando Figes, and less well-known but up-and-coming young academics and artists such as Gideon Koppel, who directed this year’s acclaimed film sleep furiously, London-based Iraqi film director Maysoon Pachachi and David Toop, a ‘sonic researcher’ at the London College of Communication who leads the Laptop Orchestra.
It’s organised by something called LCACE (the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange) which has been going for some 5 years but has decided that that’s enough time hiding its light under a bushel.
Patrick Kelly on the first line of defence for the nation’s art treasures
Sir Stafford Cripps is not one of those historical figures normally associated with making a contribution to the gaiety of the nation - but we have him to thank for the fact that Titian’s The Death of Actaeon and Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks adorn the walls of the National Gallery while The Three Graces by Canova is amongst the treasures enjoyed by visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum or the National Galleries of Scotland.
These great works of art were saved for the country thanks to the UK’s rather unique system of banning the export of art until such time as major museums and galleries have had time to stump up the cash to keep them at home. At one time, all of the above were destined to leave these shores as their owners found buyers abroad until a government minister stopped the sale in its tracks. Public appeals, donations from the Art Fund, support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund - all of these were tapped in order to ensure that the asking price for the artworks was matched here in the UK.
But who decides to slap the export ban on a treasured item, or rather who recommends that course of action to the Secretary of State for Culture? And on what basis do they make that recommendation?
Step forward the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. This body has been around for some 57 years, making it one of our more venerable quangos. It was set up by the lugubrious Cripps, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, following an inquiry into whether Britain should retain its wartime controls over the export of outstanding works of art.
York’s venerable Theatre Royal has gone much further than handing out free tickets to young people, it’s asked them to run the show too.
Robbie Swale has been booking acts for the programme at York’s Theatre Royal this month. But Robbie doesn’t work for the theatre. He has a job with the Meat Hygiene service. Izzy Madgwick has been commissioning designers, employing photographers and issuing press releases for the York Theatre Royal since May, but she’s not on the theatre payroll either - she’s just graduated from university.
In fact, stroll into the foyer of the city’s prestigious and venerable theatre building, 265 years old and still going strong, and you will come across box office staff, technicians, managers and catering supervisors who are not only extraordinarily young, but none of them will be on any kind of employment contract with the theatre.
But this is not a student occupation..it is rather, one of the most daring schemes ever undertaken by a regular theatre. From September 19 until October …everything at York Theatre Royal will be run by a group of young people who have been allowed to take over the theatre lock, stock and barrel.
THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW with Dea Birkett, director of Kids in Museums
‘Visitors should be aware that some of the works in Walking in My Mind are of an explicit nature and are not considered suitable for children.’ Hayward Gallery
When I’m tutoring on a writing workshop for museum and gallery professionals, we always advise participants against using the passive voice. It’s evasive, we say. It suggests to the visitor that you’re hiding something. Who exactly is doing or saying it? The visitor wants to know.
And that’s how I felt when I read that notice as I entered the Hayward Gallery on the last, crowded weekend of the Walking in My Mind exhibition, accompanied by my eight-year-old twins. Who didn’t consider the work suitable for my kids?
Not me. And certainly not the other parents who were there that weekend. Every single family I saw nodded at the notice, then dragged their toddler or teenager into the gallery, stalwartly ignoring it.
The particularly offending item was a work by Jason Rhoades called The Creation Myth. In a huge room as crowded as a jumble sale, there were, if you looked carefully, some images of women’s genitals in the style of pages torn from a pornographic magazine. (There was an additional notice outside this room, with PARENTAL GUIDANCE in big red letters –
‘Visitors should be aware that this work contains sexually explicit images. This work is not suitable for children. To by-pass this work, please retrace your steps …’)
The problem was, the only reason my kids looked carefully was to find what they weren’t supposed to see. ‘What’s not for children?’ they pestered me. If there had been no notice, they wouldn’t have noticed. And even when they did find the offensive images, they just glanced and moved on to more interesting items – the toy train with a stuffed snake on top, for example. My teenager, in contrast, would have stuck by anything suggesting sex. But I don’t think the parental guidance notice was directed at 16-year-olds.
This isn’t the first exhibition where my kids have been warned off. I remember the 1997 Brit Art exhibition at the Royal Academy, where we were guided away from a room full of pictures of naked children. At Banksky in Bristol recently, our guide ushered us past the plastic phallus hidden amongst the exhibits in one glass cabinet, not wanting the twins to spot it.
You’ll have noticed that all these instances involve contemporary art. Why do we think modern images are particularly problematic? I’ve never seen – although you may correct me – a notice up warning children away from the anatomically correct genitals on Michelangelo’s David. When my youngest was just three, I showed him the replica at the V&A and his immediate response was to shout out, ‘Big willie!’ Should I have grabbed the handles on his pushchair and made for the flowers on the 19th century French porcelain vases, steering him away from harm?
Brit Art, Banksky and Walking in the Mind were all great exhibitions for kids. At the Hayward, Yoshimoto Nara’s My Drawing Room became a wonderful Wendy house for them to peep into; Thomas Hirschhorn’s tunnels made of cardboard boxes and packing tape were a joy to explore. But at all of them, there were some works of art I was uncomfortable exposing my children to. At the Hayward, Mark Manders’ cat cut in half disturbed the twins. ‘I think that’s why it isn’t suitable for children,’ whispered one of them, guessing completely incorrectly what they were not supposed to see.
I don’t advocate getting rid of all warnings. But I do believe it would be far braver for galleries to own up to who wrote them. ‘We – the Hayward, or even a named curator – believe this work is unsuitable for children.’ It’s chickening out to imply an impersonal authority – Government? The Authorities? God? - has deemed us bad parents if we let our seven-year-old stroll past a picture of a penis.
But most of all, I wonder if it really is productive to point these things out. Human genitals are far more embarrassing – and confusing to look at - for 16-year-olds than six-year-olds. And violence is far more damaging to both of them. So let’s have no more passive voices on gallery walls. If a museum, gallery or exhibition space feels a need to warn parents, that’s fine. But say who is doing it. And, perhaps, why.
More details of TextWorkshop writing workshops for museum and gallery professionals at www.textworkshop.co.uk
To order a Kids in Museums Manifesto and sign up as a supporter, go to www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk
Plans for a new headquarters for the Design Museum on the site of the former Commonwealth Institute have been given the green light by councillors.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s planning committee, on a casting vote, has approved the controversial proposal to revamp the existing 1960s building to a design by iconic architect Rem Koolhas.
The move will give the Design Museum three times more space, says director
Deyan Sudjic, “We are thrilled with the outcome which now opens the way for the Design Museum to realise its vision of becoming a world leading creative centre for design and architecture”.
The Grade II listed former Commonwealth Institute building, now known as the Parabola, has been largely unoccupied since 2001 but English Heritage objected to the original changes, including the size of proposed new blocks of flats surrounding the building. English heritage has still to comment on the revised plan and objectors hope it will call in the application.
The Design Museum’s plans are to be part-financed by the developers, with a contribution of £20 million toward the cost of the restoration, and the donation of a long-term lease at a peppercorn rental.
Birmingham Conservation Trust has attacked the regional development agency for pulling out of a major scheme to regenerate the city’s 19th century former coffin works as a museum and visitor centre.
The trust says the agency’s sudden decision to withdraw a promised £1.5 million grant has left it in a difficult financial position.
The development agency, Advantage West Midlands and the Conservation Trust had agreed to restore the derelict Grade II* listed Newman Brothers building in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in 2002. After the building, which is on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk register, was featured in the BBC Restoration programme, English Heritage also agreed a £250,000 grant for the scheme.
But AWM withdrew funding earlier this year because of a shortfall in government funding.
The Conservation Trust has suggested that AWM cut its grant instead, allowing the former coffin works to be reopened for commercial use, with the museum and visitor centre to be opened at a later date. But AWM have not responded.
Trust director Elizabeth Perkins said,” They really don’t understand heritage and they haven’t thought about the consequences of owning a historic listed building.”
She added, “Most of our income is drawn at the end of a project. If our partner pulls out, the loss of income is a significant setback for the sustainability of our small charity.”
The Scottish government plans to maintain overall spending on culture, despite a cut in the government’s budget.
Culture minister Michael Russell said that he would continue to spend on his major priorities - setting up Creative Scotland, support for Gaelic culture and promoting Scotland abroad. However, he admitted this will mean cuts in support for “innovative cultural initiatives.”
He added that the Scottish government would continue backing major capital projects to widen access to Scotland’s national archives and collections.
The budget for Scotland’s National Performing Companies, which was originally meant to be £27.4 million is down to £26 million.
Local government supported arts organisations are also likely to face reductions, say observers, as the budget will mean a cut in grants to local authorities.
The Scottish Government’s draft Budget 2010-11 is published at: www.scotland.gov.uk/draftbudget2010-11
The Hippodrome theatre in Ashton under Lyme has been saved from demolition after English Heritage listed the building.
The Grade II listing means that owners Tameside Council cannot go ahead with plans to demolish the 1904 theatre and sell the site to developers. The theatre was closed in March 2008 after the council said it could not afford the £3 million to make it fit for use. The theatre was marketed in June but failed to attract a buyer, leaving the council with no alternative but recommend its demolition, say officials.
But campaigners lobbied for the building to be restored as a theatre and pressed for the listing.
Cllr Kieran Quinn, executive member for economic services, said the decision to list the building was “ disappointing”. He added,”We need time to think through the implications of what has happened.”
• In Derby a campaign group has been formed to lobby for a £14 million development plan for the threatened Hippodrome theatre there.
They want Derby City Council to restore the theatre as part of a regeneration scheme. The council stopped owner Christopher Anthony from demolishing part of the building without permission last year and is considering a planning application for full demolition. .
|The alternative proposal would see the Hippodrome with a modernised auditorium and new fly tower and an additional storey built to house a restaurant.
North East Somerset Arts (nesa) fears that it may have to lay off staff and cut its local projects because of a £25,000 shortfall in funding.
The community arts group, which runs projects to help vulnerable groups such as those with mental health difficulties or hard to reach young people, says that its income from trusts and foundations has dwindled as a result of the recession and public sector funding is likely to fall from next year.
Describing the shortfall as a “crisis,” nesa director Lesley Featherstone said,” There is much less money available this year, and more people going for it.” The arts organisation, which has been working with artists on small community based projects since 1981 is not a regularly funded organisation, but received money from the Arts Council’s Grants for the Arts awards and from the local council.
But Ms Featherstone said the local authority had also warned of cuts in non-statutory provision from next year. “That presumably means us.” Funding for youth projects with nesa had been cut 18 months ago, she said.
Unless the shortfall is bridged, nesa will have to shed jobs and her own post would have to go part-time, she said.
ENDS
