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THE JOURNAL OF NATIONAL HERITAGE ● SPRING 2009 ● ISSUE 85 ● £3Check out our website at nationalheritage.org.uk

MUSEUMnewsMuseum boards – ‘male, pale, stale’ 1 Art Fund Prize last ten 2Kids’ manifesto 2Mary Rose’s secrets 3

NATIONAL HERITAGE GUIDEA selective list of current and forthcoming museum and gallery exhibitions 10- 15

EVENTS

NH PROFILERhiann Harris 4

LOCAL FOCUSHoneywood Museum 5

INSIDE

NEWS

Robert Hewison onhow the ‘industry’has changed 9

Forthcoming visit to the HandelHouse Museum 16

1 – Broadfield Glass Museum 82 – Theatre at the V&A 8

HERITAGE REVISITED

NH DEBATE

No to Britishness museum 6

MUSEUM IN THE NEWS

The boards of publicly funded museums and gal-leries have been branded “male, pale and stale” – bythe chief executive of the Museums Libraries andArchives Council, Roy Clare.

“The inherent problem in the public sector ofself-generating ruling class maintaining this ‘male-pale-stale’ environment in governance” he said,meaning that too few women, two few young peo-ple, and many too few from the black, Asian andmulti-ethnic sectors (BAME) are appointed tomuseum boards.

The difference, he says, is not so much betweenthe heritage sector and the visual and performingarts, as between the public and private sector, andthe crucial factor is the rules about appointments toboards following the Nolan Committee report onstandards in public life.

Nolan was concerned to eradicate the “tap on theshoulder” process of recruiting to the boards of pub-lic bodies, to ensure appointments on merit. Butwhat is happening is that the “pool” from whichboard members, particularly for national museumsand galleries, is drawn has solidified.

“So the inherent problem in the public sector ofself-generating ruling class maintaining this ‘male-pale-stale’ environment in governance” he said,meaning that too few women, two few young peo-ple, and many too few from the black, Asian andmulti-ethnic sectors on boards (BAME).

The effect of too many white middle-aged menon our museums’ governing bodies is that the manydifferent stories a museum collection can tell that

would appeal to the growingly diverse sectors ofmodern British society are not drawn out. “We’ve gotcollections with really huge potential to representdiverse stories, but the governance of the board doesnot reflect that” he said. “That’s the key startingpoint for me”.

The problem relates as much to his own board atthe MLA as anywhere else, but he hopes there aresigns of change. DCMS has an advisory board onheritage comprising the likes of Clare, Carole Souterof the HLF, Mark Jones of the V&A and NationalMuseums Directors’ Conference, and EnglishHeritage CEO Simon Turley, which recently present-ed a key paper to the head civil servant in the depart-ment, Jonathan Stephens. “He has reacted positive-ly” Clare said, and in April the first ever networkingsession involving chairs and chief executives fromthe sector was due to take place at DCMS.

“The private sector has got more freedom interms of how to appoint trustees, and that freedomwhen used well can extend to bringing onto a boardpeople who can make a difference for you in one sec-tor or another. Private sector charities have broughtin very imaginative people who wouldn’t competeunder Nolan for public sector jobs” Clare said.

The pool has to be widened, and Clare hopes tothat the current rebuilding of the MLA board will setan example of having more women, young peopleand trustees from BAME backgrounds – but theproblem remains, he admits, that the team appointedby DCMS to select likely candidates are three whitemiddle-aged males.

We don’t know his name, but know a good dealelse about this sailor, who died when the MaryRose went down in the Solent in 1545 andwhose skeleton was found in the wreckage. Hewas the ship’s bosun, the officer closest to thecrew, who could be identified by the possessionof his bosun’s whistle or call. He was in his early40s, quite elderly in a crew that was mostly agedbetween 17 and 24, and although short bymodern standards was powerfully built,indicating a lifetime at sea. Scientists can eventell that he was born and bred in south-westEngland. This astonishingly detailedreconstruction of his appearance has beencreated by a partnership of the forensic scientistDr Lynne Bell and Richard Neave, a leadingmedical artist. Full story, page 3.

The face of Henry’s navy

Stuart Davies on the recession, you and Keynes 7 Museum boards ‘male, pale

and stale’ – MLA chief

Museum News goes virtualThis will be the last printed MuseumNews for the time being. Because of therising costs of printing and distribution,the next issue, due in October, andsubsequent issues will be publishedonline only at our website, atnationalheritage.org.uk, where you willfind all the news and features supportingthe interests of museum and galleryvisitors and users, and the role ofmuseums and galleries in the UK. Ourpopular listings will also appear on thewebsite. – Simon Tait, Editor.

MUSEUM NEWS

2 MUSEUM NEWS SPRING 09

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER

Those who read my letter in the lastissue may recall that I warned thatour limited resources have been

imposing increasingly severe restrictionson National Heritage’s activities, andthat our charity would face some toughdecisions in the coming year. Amongthese was the possibility that we mighthave to close down, one suggestionbeing that we should do so with a bangrather than a whimper – using the cashwe had left to support a small museumthat was itself facing closure. Theproblem with that, as we can see nowwe are well into this difficult year, wouldbe judging which of quite a fewmuseums most deserved such anaward. After some valuable discussionsat our annual general meeting theexecutive committee decided that thiswas not the time to close down, thoughothers have been forced to do so. TheCampaign for Museums has had to, andabandon its annual museum month,following the withdrawal of funding bythe Museum, Libraries and ArchivesCouncil, and too many museums andgalleries, particularly those dependenton local authority funding, are likely tobe facing financial and other problemsduring the current recession and willneed all the support andencouragement we can give.

Readers of this issue will find, onpage seven, an interesting appraisal byStuart Davies, one of our regularcontributors and current president of the Museums Association, of howmuseums and galleries might beaffected by the recession. He alsosuggests how they might make some contributions towards itsresolution.

Simply by surviving, NationalHeritage will continue to do what it can to help, but we shall have to cutcosts in order to do so. One economy,as announced on the front page of thisissue, will be to cease publishingMuseum News in print format, whichwill make substantial savings in ourbudget. Our journal will continue to be available on line(www.nationalheritage.org.uk), as willan expanded version of our list ofcurrent and forthcoming museum andgallery exhibitions, and for thosemembers who do not have computers aprint-out can be obtained on applicationto the NY Administration Centre, RyeRoad, Hawkburst, Kent TN18 5DW (tel: 01580 752 052). James Bishop

Now is not the time...

The long list of ten museums and galleries hasbeen announced for the £100,000 Art Fund Prizefor museums and galleries. The winner will beannounced in June.

The judges, chaired by Lord Puttnam, willselect the winner from:• The Braid: Arts Centre and Mid-AntrimMuseum, Ballymena, Co Antrim, a £20 millionnew museum, arts centre and exhibition spaceexploring the history of the region. • The Centre of New Enlightenment atKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum,Glasgow, inspired by the 18th century ScottishEnlightenment and using the museum’s collec-tions to inspire young people. • Outside the Box at the Museum of Readingwhich entrusts more than 20,000 precious objectsfrom the museum’s collections packed into morethan 1,500 boxes and loaned out to schools, col-leges, care homes, libraries, and local communitygroups. • Scotland: A Changing Nation at NationalMuseums Scotland, Edinburgh, five majorthemes affecting life in Scotland from the First

World War to the present. • National Trust Museum of Childhood,Derbyshire, which offers the rare chance for kidsbig and small to get hands-on with its collectionsin this museum set in the 19th century servants’wing of 17th century Sudbury Hall. • Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, trans-formed from a group of decaying buildings into athriving and inspirational community hub for her-itage, arts and learning.• Rotunda – The William Smith Museum ofGeology, Scarborough, one of the oldest surviv-ing purpose-built museums in the country. • Ruthin Craft Centre: The Centre for theApplied Arts, Denbighshire, the most importantgallery for contemporary craft in Wales in a stun-ning new building. • The Sackler Centre for arts education at theV&A, London, one of the most innovative muse-um education spaces in the world.• The Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent,celebrating the art of ceramics at its finest and ded-icated to the people who have made objects ofgreat beauty from the soil of Staffordshire.

With the help of a £40,000 grant from the Museums Libraries and Archives Council,Kids in Museums, the charity devoted to highlight-ing the needs of families in museum visits, hasproduced a new manifesto culled from theresponses in a survey of its members.

It was launched at the Royal Academy by the

Art Fund Prize 2009 longlist

What kids really want... charity’s patron, television presenter MarielaFrostrup, who recalled frightening museum visits when she was a child when warders wouldnot tolerate talking. “They were always telling meto ‘shush’ crossly, and that put me off for years” shesaid. “Why couldn’t they just have told us some-thing about the displays that would interest us?”

1. Be welcoming from café to curator.2. Be accessible or prams and wheelchairs,

with automatic doors, lifts and pushchair storage.

3. Give a hand to parents – don’t presume adults have been to a museum before, sohelp them to help their children enjoy themuseum.

4. Be interactive and hands on so kids can touch objects.

5. Be height aware, with objects, art and signage low enough to children to see.

6. Have different things to do with art carts, picture trails, storytelling, and dressing up so parents don’t have to do all the work.

7. Produce guides and trails that children and adults can use together.

8. Provide healthy food and unlimited tap water.

9. Provide great toilets with baby changing facilities and room for pushchairs.

10. Teach kids respect for objects and other visitors, and explain why there are things they can’t touch.

11. Sell items in the shop that aren’t too expensive and not junk.

12. Give free entry wherever possible or family tickets allowing re-entry.

13. Don’t make assumptions about kids likes and dislikes, they can appreciate fine art as well as finger-painting.

14. Provide open space where kids can let offsteam.

15. But also have some quiet space where kids and families can reflect together.

16. Don’t say “shush” – why shouldn’t families be able to discuss what the are seeing?

17. Don't forget teenagers and make sure there’s somewhere for them to store theirstuff.

18. Have dedicated family friendly days with extra activities.

19. Remember there’s no typical family, they can span generations.

20. Remember a visit doesn’t end when a family leaves. Many families want the experience to last, so have follow-up activities and suggestions on the website.

The 20 points respondents called for were:

MUSEUM NEWS

MUSEUM NEWS SPRING 09 3

In a remarkable coup, a Croydon school ratherthan an accredited museum is the venue wheresome of the most extraordinary survivals ofTudor life – relics from the wreck of HenryVIII’s warship Mary Rose – can be seen by thepublic for the first time.

The exhibition, which is at Whitgift Schooluntil August 7, has 250 objects from the wreckabout 80% of which have never been seen pub-lic before, but which will be part of the newMary Rose museum being planned forPortsmouth Harbour.

As well as the reconstructions of the faces ofthe ship’s bosun and a gunner, there is the fullskeleton of the ship’s dog, a mongrel thatappears to have spent its entire life on board andwas probably mostly engaged in keeping downthe rat population.

The Mary Rose sank suddenly in 1545 as theFrench fleet was attacking the English in theSolent, killing all but a few of its complement ofover 400. The ship, named after Henry’sfavourite sister, remained on the ocean flooruntil marine archaeologists raised it in 1982,and they have been bringing remarkably pre-served treasures to the surface ever since.

The exhibition, at the new £10m conferencecentre of Whitgift School which stands on landonce owned by Henry VIII, has an array ofobjects which portray every aspect of shipboardlife in the early Tudor navy.

There are rare yew bows and their arrows –

The article “Has the social museum arrived?”(Museum News 84) got me steaming. I haveseldom read anything so patronizing in myprofessional career. It seems to imply thatmuseum curators live up to some kind of1920s stereotype of an introverted analacademic with no interest in his (it’s negativeso of course the stereotype’s male!)community or the stories that his museumtells beyond demonstrating his knowledge ofthe minute details of 18th Century porcelain(or whatever happens to be his pet subject).I am sick and tired of media-grabbingwhizzkids and overpaid academics stating theblindingly obvious as if it is something new.Of course museums should be relevant totheir audiences and those audiences should

be as diverse and inclusive as possible. Ofcourse collections and archives are primarilyof value for the stories they contain. I don’tthink I have ever met a colleague who wouldsuggest anything different.

However, suggesting that we shouldmount collections-free exhibitions or severelycut back on collections care is a very differentthing. If museums turn their backs on theircollections they will end up only doing badlywhat the internet and History Channel cando on much bigger budgets, beamed directto the living rooms of the audience. If we arestill to suggest that people visit museums wehave to use our USP which, like it or not,remains material artefacts and primarysource documents.

used as counters.Clothes were found in excellent condition,

including shoes which could be worn today, ajerkin, woollen hose and a leather mitten. Acomb still has nits trapped in its tines.

The officers put their own arms on the pewterdining ware they used, and although below decksthe wooden bowls belonged to the king, theyalso had the marks of their seaman users. Thereis a great wooden tankard, and tankard lids werealso marked by their users.

Medical equipment includes a large syringe,and bottles still have the medicines used onboard.

Music was clearly important in the king’snavy. And there is a drum, a unique fiddle withits bow, a shawm - complete with its reed and theonly surviving example of its type - and a taborpipe, a kind of flute played whilst banging adrum.

And there are early navigational instruments,including a compass, dividers, a chart stick and

sounding weights used with lines tomeasure water depth.

There are also itemsof rigging and tools,and the complete sideof a sailor’s wooden

trunk. Surprisingly, only six

years after the Reformation,there are personal rosary beads,

as well as other items of jew-ellery.

Whitgift School’s headmaster,Dr Christopher Barnett, persuaded

the trustees of the Mary Rose to allowhim to be the first to show many of the items aspart of the celebrations marking the 500thanniversary of the accession of Henry VIII, andalso of the commissioning of the Mary Rose.

“It is the most fantastic story, and these findsare unmatched for their quality and what theycan tell us about the navy in the 1540s” he said.

Hidden Treasures from the Mary Rose is atWhitgift School, Nottingham Road, Haling Park,Croydon CR2 6YT, from April 7 to August 7,www.maryrosehidden treasures.org.

Letter from Erik Blakeley, curator of Staffordshire Regiment Museum

contrary to popular belief, English yew was notthe best favoured because it was too difficult tobend, and European wood was the most soughtafter. There are guns and different types of shot,including the rare and fearsome canister shot, abox packed with pebbles which would scatter itsdeadly cargo on impact. There is a basket-hiltsword, daggers and knives.

There are fresh-minted gold coins and silver groats, as well as worthless jettons,

First showingfor MaryRose’s treasures

MUSEUM PROFILE


Rhian Harris’s new charge used to be dis-paragingly known as “The BromptonBoilers”, a prefabricated Victorian build-

ing which was once the main galleries of theSouth Kensington Museum (now the V&A),moved to East End in the 1870s when it was nolonger required in Brompton Road, and a centu-ry later turned into the Bethnal Green Museumof Childhood.

Its fortunes have lifted considerably since itreopened after a three year refurbishment, cost-ing £5m, with an increase of visitor numbersfrom 125,000 a year to 350,000.

There’s still building to do, but now more ofperception than bricks and mortar, and it’s quitea challenge.

“It’s a museum of childhood, but it’s perceivedas a children’s museum and sometimes it has tobe a bit of both, which is tricky” Harris says.

At the age of 28 she had been the first direc-tor of the Foundling Museum in Bloomsburywhere she raised more than £11m herself to cre-

ate the museum. Four years ago The Observerincluded her as one of its 80 brightest young peo-ple, and in 2006 Time Out picked her out as amover and shaker.

Now called the V&A Museum of Childhood,in the 80s there was a limited refurbishment with-out the benefit of the lottery money stream.

That has changed, and the once case-crowdedcentral floor space is now devoted to an informa-tion desk, a shop and a cafeteria, with the collec-tions - still largely in glass cases - on the twofloors rising either side of the atrium. The remakecompleted in December 2006 added a newentrance, more education space, bigger toilets,and there’s a sandpit and a kiddies’ kitchen tooccupy the smaller visitors.

Harris, now 38, had been coming here as avisitor since her son Kyffin was six months old(he’s four now), and she thought then that it hadbecome a sort of theme park. “Mums can come infor a cup of coffee while the kids bounce aroundsomewhere safe, but you want those people to

look in the cases” she says. That’s where her building process starts, look-

ing at programming, exhibitions, its establish-ment as the V&A’s national museum of child-hood, and building a relationship with the mainmuseum to the west, which she sees as much as atreasure chest as a parent institution.

“One of the big things I need to do is revisit allthe permanent displays – eventually we need totell the story of childhood here and that’s notbeing done” she says, which means looking atsocial history or the first time here, “at personalstories, because that’s a really key way that peo-ple access history”. Not just putting a toy in acase, then, but information about the child whoowned it, maybe a photograph, and a descriptionof their life, “so the whole thing comes alive”.

She is creating a narrative now, “a beginning,a middle and an end, with the thematic things thatcome out of it. People walk through the doorsnow and see a museum of toys, they don’t knowwhat the museum is really about”.

The poignancy of tough childhoods wassomething Harris came face to face with at theFoundling, with the scores of tokens, sometimesno more than beer bottle tops, left by parents withtheir abandoned children, in a tear-jerking dis-play.

“Everybody relates to it and that certainlyinfluences my thinking, and I want to bring ithere. I’ve seen the power of that, and how peoplerespond to those kinds of stories; when we hadpeople walking out in tears I felt I’d done my jobproperly” she says. She wants to plan an exhibi-tion for under-fives, but also a collaborative onewith other museums which would look at theabandonment of children, the real tragedy behindthe tale of Peter Pan. “We have to be truthful, andthe truth is not always easy” she says.

She has inherited a programme of exhibitionsstretching two years ahead, but she wants to lookat a new kind of temporary show that exploreschildren’s lives, and probably not the ones whosemiddle class families were able to buy them thesophisticated toys shown now. For the Olympicsyear the V&A will have an exhibition of the bestdesign of the years 1948 (when the Olympicswere last in London) and 2012, and the MoC -within the Olympics corridor - will offer a chil-dren’s version, but may also add social historywith a display about the life of a typical BethnalGreen child in 1948 compared with today.Design, she says, is an intrinsic part of social his-tory: after all, she says, “everyday objects aremade in such a way as to be effective, and that’swhat makes them successful”.

She wants to introduce contemporary art tothe museum, and in Bethnal Green it is surround-ed by studios where important artists are work-ing. “We’re so brilliantly placed, this must be amassively inspirational resource, and maybe westart a mini Frieze, where for a month things areexhibited intermingled with the objects. Whynot? We should be a museum that connects on acommunity basis as well as national and interna-tional.

“One of the reasons I work in museums is thatthey have a real power to touch people and some-times, in a small way but also a large way, tochange lives.”

A museum of childhood – and childrenRhian Harris, director, the V&A Museum of Childhood


The village of Carshalton is now buried in the suburban cottonwool of what used to be called the Surrey Stockbroker

Belt, part of the London Borough of Sutton and bordering on the London Borough ofCroydon, but at its heart is a large natural pondas bucolic as any Cotswold rural scene. It is thattranquil world that the wealthy London merchantJohn Pattinson Kirk bought into as a countryescape when in the 1880s he acquired two 17thcentury flint-and-chalk cottages on the pond tobe a second home to his main household in SohoSquare.

They were called Wandle Cottage andHoneywood, and having demolished the secondand transferred the name to the first, he devel-oped it into a comparatively modest house, overbabbling culverted River Wandle. He made fur-ther additions in 1898 and 1903.

Honeywood developed into a large and eye-catching white-stuccoed house overlooking theponds on the main A232, and when Kirk died itwas home to his adopted daughter Lily KirkEdwards. She sold it in 1940 to the CarshaltonDistrict Council which was keen to preserve asmuch of the village as possible, and for almosthalf a century Honeywood served as municipaloffices – including serving as an ARP headquar-ters during the Second World War.

Then in 1989, with the district council sub-sumed into Sutton, the house became a heritagecentre for the whole borough opening in 1990after an extensive refurbishment, and at the endof 2007 was designated a museum.

Curator Jane Howard says that Honeywoodnow is what the community makes it. “We don’twant to put interpretations on things, the housespeaks for itself and the visitors follow in thefootsteps of the people of Carshalton that wouldhave know in its past and do know it now.”

Research has revealed the colour schemes ofthe woodwork and walls of the Pattinson Kirkhousehold, and architectural features have sur-vived well to be carefully restored. A self-indul-gence for Mr Pattinson Kirk was his magnificentground floor snooker saloon, which hasremained fully equipped.

Honeywood is a Victorian middle class home,except in the bathroom where the original tub hassurvived and the scullery which still has its cop-per for heating the household’s water, there areno “recreated” 19th century rooms here.

The now rare flint/chalk chequered externalwalls of the original cottage are still there in thecentre of the house, and they have been uncov-ered and displayed; in what has become theTudor Room, a 17th century window had beenplastered over in the mid-19th century and it wasdiscovered in 1989, its glass still intact, to giveunique information of the first architecture of theplace.

The Tudor Gallery on the first floor allowsthe museum to celebrate royal connections, par-ticularly with the court of Henry VIII, and thisyear, in the 500th anniversary year of Henry’s

Honeywood is also a home gallery for localartists, with its own substantial collection of theirwork and frequent exhibitions – among the col-lection is one by the last owner of the house, LilyKirk Edwards, a gifted watercolourist – and MsHoward has also acquired important paintings oflocal landscapes done before photography toenlarge knowledge of local history.

Now Sutton and the museum have launched a£450,000 scheme to open the museum out evenmore to the community. It is already the centrefor local organisations, and for the annual art fes-tival at the end of May, and after consulting thecommunity there will be a new interpretation ofthe house’s story, a focal point for local conserva-tion interpretation, repair of some historical fea-tures, and a more sophisticated contemporary artprogramme.

The museum will also look at 20th centuryhistory in the borough, including the develop-ment of local estates, and six plasma screens areto be located around the borough through whicha wider audience for the collections and activitiescan be reached.

“We know how important the communityreckons the museum to be, we have an extremelyactive and enthusiastic Friends group which wecouldn’t manage without” says Jane Howard,“but we want to be even more in step with the vil-lage of Carshalton and the wider borough ofSutton.”

LOCAL FOCUS

The Honeywood dreamaccession, there is an opportunity to mark thoseconnections through the local families, such asthe Carews who had a long if mixed associationwith Tudor royalty.

Another room is devoted to childhoodthrough the bequeathed possessions of a localwoman born in 1898, with her pram, her toys andgames, all augmented by modern equivalentswhich children can play with. “We like to makethings as hands-on as possible” Jane Howardsays.

On the landing where the complicated net-work of stairways meets at a junction, the localtransport story is told, overlooked by an enor-mous station clock.

Another room, with a full-size quern stone atits centre at which visitors can discover for them-selves the enormous effort it took to grind ahandful of corn, is devoted to memories of localindustries. The growing of watercress was impor-tant here, and it was a centre for the manufactureof snuff.

Visitor numbers are modest, at between17,000 and 13,000 a year, reduced while the fran-chise for the tearoom on the ground floor is allot-ted (it should be open for the summer), but 1,500children from local schools come each year.“We’re eager to ensure that there is always some-thing new here and we have a lot of repeat visits– children come with their schools and then bringtheir families, for instance” the curator says.


MUSEUM NEWS

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Councilhas told the DCMS that a Museum ofBritishness as envisaged by the Prime

Minister has no future.Instead, the MLA suggests a focussed website run

by a small team who would establish links with rele-vant collections around Britain to create modules,online and actual exhibitions and events.

A new building would cost £150m to £200m, andthe MLA found no evidence that a single building inLondon devoted to British history would attract andengage people, the report said.

Nor had there been much support from the muse-um profession because it would have no permanentcollections of its own and would have to draw on theholdings of other museums around Britain, whichwould be difficult to sustain. A London-based muse-um would also have the effect of alienating commu-nities in the rest of the country, counter to the govern-ment’s policy of improving a sense of national aware-ness.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum,fully endorsed the MLA report. “Given the nearimpossibility of a new museum securing the loans ofobjects and documents from all over the UK, it seemsthe web is the right option for this very importantsubject” he said.

The nearest we have to a museum of British his-tory is the National Portrait Gallery, a biographicalcollection which chronicles national accomplish-ment, whose director Sandy Nairne was consulted bythe MLA team.

“A new building wouldn’t have made any senseeven if we hadn’t been in these economic times”Nairne said. “There are accounts of parts of the storyin the British Library, the National Portrait Gallery,parts of the British Museum, the V&A and theCommonwealth and Empire Museum, but anotherbuilding is not the way to make really sure that chil-dren care about British history and want to knowmore about it.”

Lord Baker, the former Home Secretary who per-suaded Gordon Brown to support the idea early lastyear, was particularly disappointed, however. He hadbeen close to establishing the museum in 1997 whenthe plan was high on the list for Lottery funding bythe then Millennium Fund and it was vetoed by TonyBlair. “The report is a great disappointment, andwhat they’ve put forward instead is a damp squib” hesaid.

“There are lots of websites and they’re not veryexciting; children need a day out they can remember.Nowhere tells the whole story. My idea was a build-ing that would do it on four floors and there would befive floors for the University of the Arts, near to

Thumbs down for theMuseum ofBritishness

Museums, the Recession and Mr. Keynes

How are museums coping with therecession ? Is it all gloom and despon-dency, or is there anything more pos-

itive to report?Received wisdom has it that recession hits

the public sector later than the manufacturingor service sectors, but the impact of it lastslonger. So it is early days to come to any defin-itive conclusions about the impact of recessionupon museums, even assuming we had reliableways of measuring that impact, which we donot.

Nevertheless, some observations can bemade and thoughts offered. The first one hasto be that there is no hiding place. Museumsare not recession-proof. If they get significantincome from admissions and trading, they willbe hit because people spend less in a reces-sion. If they offer free admission but are fund-ed out of the public purse they are going tolose the budgets they need to function becausethere is going to be less public funding avail-able. Local authorities, universities, regimentsand most other corporate bodies which runmuseums, for example, have lost income asthe value of their financial investments hasdeclined. Even the usual generous donors andsponsors will have been hit and will be think-ing a lot harder about how generous they canbe now. In government, the talk is all of count-er-recession strategies.

So what can be done to at least reduce theimpact of recession and kick start economicrecovery? The Keynesian solution is to spend.Invest public money in schemes which deliveremployment and business opportunities,which in turn put money in consumers’ pock-ets, which they spend in the retail and servicesectors. This virtuous wheel slowly grindsaround and drives the economy again. Thoseless keen on Keynesian economics will pointout that it may well be a “spend now, pay later”philosophy. That remains to be seen.Nevertheless, the concept of “putting idlehands to work” has more than just economicbenefits. It addresses serious social and psy-chological issues: being able to offer employ-ment and a purpose in life restores the dignity,spirit and optimism of those directly affectedby recession.

Can museums contribute? The bodies thatfund them certainly can help them to. Moneyinvested by the Heritage Lottery Fund inmuseum construction projects or programmeswhich involve employing significant teams ofworkers can make a real difference. Similarly,Renaissance is well-placed to direct fundinginto projects which engage with those who areaffected by recession. But more directly, thereare at least three ways museums can help.

NATIONALHERITAGEDEBATE

with Stuart Davies


First, they can organise themselves to takein more volunteers, especially graduates whowill come out of their colleges and universitiesin the summer and find it very tough to get ajob. Most museums have the basic infrastruc-ture to manage major volunteer programmes,and there is plenty of advice around about howto do it properly. Museums just need to take amore business-like efficient approach torecruiting and retaining young minds willing tolearn and having a lot to offer museums.

Second, resources can be diverted into pro-grammes which are labour-intensive for a fewand at the same time engage large numbers ofpeople. An ideal example is that of oral historyprojects. There is an opportunity now to carryout recordings of people living through reces-sionary times and mark how they have beenaffected and how they are coping.

Finally, all museums can turn their attention– and their resources – to tourism. In a reces-sion fewer people holiday abroad and morelook to closer at home for their recreation.Museums can and should be part of whatBritain has to offer this summer and probablyfor some time to come. They need to bereviewing their offer and trying to imaginewhat these new visitors might want and expect.

None of these suggestions are going toentirely protect museums from the impact ofrecession, but they will go some way towardsagain demonstrating the value of museums tosociety and may in that way add to their sus-tainability in the longer run.

King’s Cross so it would be easy to get to. It’s a greatopportunity missed."

MLA suggests a Museum Centre for BritishHistory which would develop co-ordinated access tothe collections held in existing museums, heritagesites, libraries and archives across Britain forfocussed themes, and it would also develop a digitalcomponent to support history teaching in schools. Itwould be a national federated body, including muse-ums, universities and research institutions, supportedby a small staff, that would pull together research,planning and programming.

Alec Coles, director of Tyne & Wear Museumswhose £26m Great North Museum is due to open in Newcastle in May, said the museum of British his-tory already exists – the rich regional collections.“The last thing we need is another building that per-petuates the idea that Britishness only happens inLondon,” he said. “But something that co-ordinatesthe intelligence we have would be welcome.”

Lord Baker’s scheme was not the first attempt ata Museum of Britain. In 1994 a group of academics,historians and museologists had been impressed bythe German “Haus der Geschichte”, or HistoryHouse, which boldly set out to tell the modernGerman story including the horrors of the Nazidecades. They wanted to make one here, but a muse-um that would “relate in as pragmatic and objectivea way as possible the development of the British peo-ple in all their social aspects”, as a proposal to thechief executive of Milton Keynes, who very nearlybought into the idea, put it. There would have beenfour broad subject areas: “Feeding, clothing, housingand keeping the British healthy; their inspirationsthrough education and leisure; controlling themthrough law and constitution; and their interactionwith non-British countries over the centuries”.However, the scheme failed to get the backing of thelocal authority or the National Lottery agencies.


The Theatre Museum, which closed in Covent Garden in 2007, has re-emerged in itsparent, the V&A, as the Theatre and Performance Galleries. At a cost of almost £1m, space on the first floor of the museum in South Kensingtonhas been adapted for the collections, which started life in the V&A in 1970s, withmore than 250 objects including a first folio of Shakespeare’s plays compiled in 1623and specially commissioned films of playwrights and directors including MichaelFrayn and Sir Peter Hall.

The new display ranges across the whole spectrum of live theatre performanceover the last 350 years, including costume design, posters, stage props, set models,embracing dramatic theatre, ballet, opera, musicals and even circus.

Archive footage on show includes performers such as Rudolf Nureyev, MarleneDietrich, Daniel Radcliffe, Fiona Shaw and Carlos Acosta, and highlights from theNational Video Archive of Performance including work by Complicité, the RoyalShakespeare Company as well as West End musicals, pantomime and fringe theatre.

The V&A said the new galleries would present the collections in a fresh way,focusing on the process of production and performance from initial conception anddesign to opening night.

But among the guests at the opening evening disappointment was expressed at thelack of dramatic effect in the displays. Former curator, Margaret Benton, said that thepresentation lacked a space for performance, which the Theatre Museum had had:“The objects are beautiful, but there’s no sense of actual drama” she said.

The theatre collections will have call on the V&A’s main temporary exhibitionspace for special shows, and there will be touring exhibitions from the collections,beginning with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in 2010.

MUSEUMS IN THE NEWS

Fight to saveglass museumA fierce campaign has been waged to ensure thesurvival of the Broadfield House Glass Museumat Kingswinford in the West Midlands after thelocal authority, Dudley Borough Council,ordered a feasibility study of its future. Early inApril a petition with 7,000 signatures from 50different countries compiled by the GlassFoundation was handed to the council, and at thetime of going to press feasibility consultants hadstill not been appointed.

Set in the heart of the traditional Stourbridgeglass-making district, Broadfield House is theonly dedicated glass museum of its kind in thecountry and it has developed an internationalreputation. It’s small, with only three full-timestaff and four part-time, and this year it cele-brates its 30th anniversary.

Its reputation has been spreading. Last yearBroadfield House recorded visitor numbers of14,500, more than 50% up on the previous yearand high for s specialist museum not on the reg-ular tourist beat – and that despite its openinghours being halved.

A number of factors are responsible for thenew popularity. There has been some effectivejoint marketing with Red House Glass Cone and

Dudley Museum and Art Gallery, and also apowerful word of mouth effect. Six months agoBroadfield House co-hosted the InternationalGlass Festival to, says one of the front of housestaff, Jeanette Rasmussen Tranter, great acclaim.“It is a small but perfectly formed museum withdedicated staff who are passionate about theirsubject and the service that they offer, but unfor-tunately run on a shoestring by the council” shesaid in a letter to The Times. Staff members arenow forbidden to discuss the situation publicly,including curator Roger Dodsworth.

Theatre Museum reopens in V&A galleries

MUSEUM IN THE NEWS 1

MUSEUM IN THE NEWS 2

The council’s proposal is to move the collection to Red House Cone – ironically, thesite is owned by Waterford Wedgwood whichwent into administration earlier in the year – butthe Friends of Broadfield House, who havemounted the campaign to try to change thecouncil’s decision, say the alternative does nothave enough exhibition space nor lecture facili-ties. Important loan collections would necessar-ily be out of the public gaze.


If The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline forecast ter-minal decay, I was clearly quite wrong. We are still here, and untilrecently the economy was booming. Now, as we seem to be approach-

ing conditions similar to those of the early 1980s, what has changed since1987?

First of all, the Heritage is no longer in Danger. In the 1980s, one of theways in which something came to be seen as part of the heritage was thatit had to be under threat. A hundred factory chimneys was prosperous pol-lution, ten cold factory chimneys were an eyesore, but the last factorychimney, threatened with demolition, was a proud symbol of the industri-al past.

It is absolutely true that in the 1980s a great deal of the heritage was indanger, with country houses coming somewhat higher up the endangeredlist than the communities that bore the brunt of social and economicchange. But in 1992 the government that gave us the Department ofNational Heritage – a victory for the heritage industry if ever there was one– also gave us the National Lottery. Since then the Heritage Lottery Fundhas spent more than three billion pounds on preserving the heritage, in allits forms.

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be things from the past that willbe deemed worthy of preservation, from Old Masters to steam engines. Isometimes think the Past is the only growth industry we have left. Butthanks to the one-pound gambles of many ordinary people, we are in amuch better position to preserve and understand the past than we were 20years ago. Not only that, the Heritage Lottery Fund has substantiallymoved the focus of its activities away from the object-based, class–inflect-ed attitude to what constitutes the heritage that it had inherited from theNational Heritage Memorial Fund (created in 1980), to something muchmore inclusive and democratic – and much more evenly spread across theUnited Kingdom. The HLF has seriously considered its values and is put-ting much more effort into supporting local initiatives, oral history, and thecelebration of customs and traditions as much as what is known as the builtheritage. Other organisations have tried to reach out in similar fashion. TheNational Trust, whose view of the world used to be from the DrawingRoom and Terrace, is now as proud of its downstairs as its upstairs.

But it is plainly not enough. The Taking Part survey (the government’sgarnered data about engagement and non-engagement in culture) showsthat the heritage is still largely the preserve of those who have been luckyenough to have educational, social and physical mobility. The ScottishHousehold Survey of 2007 tells a similar story. In Scotland in 2007, 79 percent of those holding a professional qualification had visited a heritagesite, compared with only 32 per cent of those with no qualifications. I haveto say that it is not just access to the heritage that we should be worried

about. There is a devastating report from the Arts Council, which alsoanalyses the Taking Part statistics. It has the rather odd title FromIndifference to Enthusiasm - odd, that is, until you understand that what theTaking Part survey tells us is that most people are indifferent, and only 4%of the population can be called enthusiasts. 84% cent of the population fallinto the ‘little if anything’ or the ‘now and again’ groups.

The message about the arts is the same as what I believe is the messageabout the heritage. I quote: ‘Two of the most important factors in determin-ing whether somebody attends arts activities are education and social sta-tus – the higher an individual’s level of education and social status, themore likely they are to have high levels of arts attendance.’

What we have to realise is that this conference has to address an issuebigger than the heritage, and bigger than the arts, and that is the wideninggap between the rich and the poor, the deprived and the educationally priv-ileged, that has steadily widened since, perhaps not coincidentally, theNational Heritage Acts of 1980 and 1983.

Yet what is interesting about those acts – the second of which createdEnglish Heritage – is that neither of them defines what “the heritage” actu-ally is. To this day the Heritage Lottery Fund refuses to define what itspends its billions on, on the grounds that it is up to people to make appealsto it to which it will then – if it is so minded – respond. The heritage hasbeen allowed to define itself – which means that it has been defined bythose who are more articulate, or simply more privileged.

But, as Stuart Hall has said: ‘Heritage is a powerful mirror. Those whodo not see themselves in it are therefore excluded’. We have an opportuni-ty to re-define – or in fact define – the meaning of the word Heritage. I amnot calling for a return to some kind of macho, metal bashing economy, andcertainly not to the class divisions it embodied. If more equal societies arehappier societies, then it is time for tap on the spirit level. In 1997 some-thing was invented called the Creative Industries – used creatively, the richresources of the past do have something to offer to the present.

As we enter a period of uncertainty that has many of the hallmarks ofthe crisis that created the Heritage Industry in the 1980s, above all, I hopethat we will reach for the critical tool of History, rather than the comfortblanket of Heritage.

Once it was the mines that became museums – how long before we seethe opening of the first Hedge Fund Heritage Centre?

Heritage open day 2008 at The Forge, Market Bosworth. Picture English Heritage

The heritage industry - revisited

“As we enter a period ofuncertainty that has manyof the hallmarks of thecrisis that created theHeritage Industry in the1980s, above all, I hopethat we will reach for thecritical tool of History,rather than the comfortblanket of Heritage.”

Twenty-two years ago Robert Hewison’s controversial TheHeritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline showedhow a boom in museum openings meant turning to thepast to manufacture a completely misleading future. Hewas wrong, he admits...

1O MUSEUM NEWS SPRING 09

Alongside are Egyptian tomb goodsfrom Brent’s own collections,acquired in the early 20th century bylocal businessman & philanthropistGeorge Titus Barham.

BRIGHTON MUSEUM & ART GALLERY Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton BN1 1EETel: 01273 290900www.virtualmuseum.infoTues-Sat & bank holidays 10-5 (Tues until 7), Sun 2-5. Admission free. The American Scene: prints from Hopper to Pollock (2 May-31 Aug 2009)The first half of the 20th century was a period of great change inAmerica. This British Museumtouring exhibition consisting of 80prints by 60 modern Americanartists– including Edward Hopper,Jackson Pollock, George Bellows,Louise Bourgeois, & AlexanderCalder–gives an insight intoAmerican society & culture of thetime.

BRITISH LIBRARY96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DBTel: 0870 4441500www.bl.ukMon-Fri 9.30-6 (Tues until 8), Sat9.30-5, Sun & bank-holiday Mons11-5. Admission to museum free. Henry VIII: Man & Monarch (23 Apr-6 Sept 2009)A major exhibition marking the500th anniversary of Henry VIII’saccession to the throne. It featuresbooks, manuscripts &correspondence written orannotated by Henry, with portraits,tapestry, armour, jewellery &sculpture on loan from othernational museums & collections.Admission £9, seniors £7,concessions £5; children free.Booking (fee applies) on 01937

546546, or via website.

BRITISH MUSEUM Great Russell St, LondonWC1B 3DG

Tel: 020 7323 8000www.britishmuseum.orgDaily 10-5.30 (Thurs, Friuntil 8.30). Admission tomuseum free. Garden & Cosmos: The royal paintings ofJodhpur (28 May-23 Aug2009)

Fifty works on loan fromIndia show the distinctivestyles of painting developed

in the region of Jodhpurbetween the 17th & 19thcenturies. Subjects range

from Jodhpur rulers in theirgardens to more abstractconcepts such as yoganarratives. Admission £8,children free. Booking (fee

BOWES MUSEUMNewgate, Barnard Castle, Co Durham DL12 8NPTel: 01833 690606www.thebowesmuseum.org.ukDaily 10-5. Admission £6.35,concessions £5.45, children free.Toy Tales (9 May-1 Nov 2009)An exhibition exploring 60 years ofBBC children’s televisionprogrammes, featuring originalanimations, puppets, props & stagesets. Included are artwork fromBagpuss, 1950s Muffin the Muletoys, & characters from present-day64 Zoo Lane, plus Paddington Bear,Andy Pandy, Basil Brush, Teletubbies& Postman Pat memorabilia.Silver & Metals Gallery (opens 10 Apr 2009)New permanent gallery featuringitems from the Museum’s collectionsthat have been undisplayed fordecades. It includes a multi-mediapresentation about the Bowes’s life-sized silver swan–a 230-year-oldautomaton operated by aningenious clockwork mechanism.

BRENT MUSEUMWillesden Green Library Centre, 95 High Rd, London NW10 2SFTel: 020 8937 3600www.brent.gov.ukMon 11-8, Tues-Sat 9-6 (Tues &Thurs until 8), Sun 11-6; closed 10 &13 Apr & 4 May. Admission free.Divine Cat: Speaking to the gods in Ancient Egypt(until 10 May 2009)One of the British Museum’s greattreasures, the famous Gayer-Anderson cat, is the focal point ofthis touring exhibition of itemsevoking the ancient Egyptianpractice of dedicating metal statuesof gods in temples, in a bid tocommunicate with the divine realm.

A selective list of current & forthcoming museum & gallery exhibitions.

ABERDEEN ART GALLERY Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FQTel: 01224 523700www.aagm.co.uk Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 2-5. Admissionfree. John Bellany (until 10 May 2009)A selection from the Gallery’spermanent collections of works byone of Scotland’s most successfulliving artists.

BARBICAN ART GALLERYBarbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DSTel: 0845 1207550www.barbican.org.uk/artgalleryDaily 11-8 (Tues, Wed until 6; Thursuntil 10). Admission £8, concessions£6, children under 12 free.Le Corbusier – The Art of Architecture (until 24 May 2009)A major survey of the renownedarchitect, thinker, writer & artistshowing how his work changeddramatically over the years. On showare his 1925 master plan for Paris, acomplete kitchen from his 1947Unité d’habitation & original modelsof his 1950s’ chapel at Ronchamp.Radical Nature: Art & architecture for a changing planet 1969-2009 (19 June-20 Sept 2009)Itself conceived as a naturallandscape, the exhibition bringstogether the ideas of visionaries fromdifferent continents & generations.Their schemes are drawn from Land Art, environmental activism,experimental architecture &utopianism to create inspiringsolutions to reverse our degradation of the natural worldaround us.

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERYChamberlain Sq, Birmingham B3 3DHTel: 0121 303 2834 www.bmag.org.ukMon-Thurs & Sat 10-5, Fri 10.30-5, Sun 12.30-5. Admission free.Matthew Boulton: Selling what all the world desires (30 May-27 Sept 2009)A majorexhibition tomark thebicentenary ofBoulton’s deathcelebrates one ofthe most importantfigures in the history ofBirmingham. With hispartner James Watt,Boulton pushed thetechnological boundaries of histime leading to Britain’s status as the world’s firstindustrial nation. It brings togethermaterial from the Museum’s collections, from the CityArchives, national museums,Birmingham Assay Office & privatecollectors.

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BowesMuseum:Toy Tales


lasting influence on 20th-centurycrafts in Britain.

DEAN GALLERY 73 Belford Rd, Edinburgh EH4 3DSTel: 0131 624 6200www.nationalgalleries.orgDaily 10-5. Admission free.Alive with Innovations: Paolozzi’s beginnings (28 Mar-30 June 2009) The seminal contributions ofEduardo Paolozzi to sculpture,printmaking & collage establishedhis position at the forefront of thepost-war avant-garde & made himone of the most influential Britishartists of the 20th century. Amonghighlights of Paolozzi’s rebelliouswork of the 1950s on show arebrutalistic sculptures, energeticdrawings, & radical collages ofcommercial material.

LES ENLUMINURES AT WARTSKI14 Grafton St, London W1S 4DETel: 020 7493 1141www.wartski.comMon-Sat 11-5. Admission freeRoman to Renaissance: A private collection of rings (12-22 May 2009)A collection of medieval &Renaissance rings from WesternEurope & Byzantium dating frombetween 300 & 1600AD. Theyinclude marriage rings, seal rings,stirrup rings, merchant rings &gemstone rings.

ESTORICK COLLECTION OFMODERN ITALIAN ART39A Canonbury Sq, London N1 2ANTel: 020 7704 9522www.estorickcollection.comWed-Sat 11-6, Sun 12-5. Admission£5, concessions £3.50, students &children under 16 free. Framing Modernism: Architecture & photography in Italy 1926-65 (29 Apr-21 June 2009)More than 100 vintage photographschart the development of ItalianModernist architecture. Theexhibition also looks at the partplayed by photography in books &magazines in fostering the strikingvisual exploration of such buildings.

FALMOUTH ART GALLERYMunicipal Buildings, The Moor,Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 2RTTel: 01326 313863www.falmouthartgallery.comMon-Sat 10-5. Admission free.Species (25 Apr-27 June 2009)Part of the Gallery’s Darwin 200celebrations, this quirky exhibitionshows some of Darwin’s intriguingresearch methods & a range ofcreatures–from small & scaly to large& hairy. Surrealist artist PatrickWoodroffe has dreamed up new &fantastic species for the show, whichalso features paintings &photographs of Cornwall’s richhorticultural heritage.

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1RBTel: 01223 332900www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.ukTues-Sat 10-5, Sun & bank-holidayMons 12-5. Admission free. Endless Forms: Charles Darwin,Natural Science & the Visual Arts(16 June-4 Oct 2009)A different take on the Darwinfestivities, this cross-disciplinaryexhibition from the Yale Center forBritish Art explores the greatnaturalist’s interest in the visual arts.Paintings by Landseer, Turner, Degas,Monet & Cézanne, plus late-19th-century drawings, photographs,sculpture, taxidermy & fossils,demonstrate the vast range ofartistic responses to his ideas.

FOX TALBOT MUSEUMLacock, nr Chippenham, Wilts SN15 2LGTel: 01249 730459www.nationaltrust.org.uk Daily 11-5.30; closed 10 Apr.Admission £5.10 (includes LacockAbbey cloisters & grounds), children£2.50; family (2+2) £12.90. Relicta: All that Remains (until 28 June 2009)An installation by Alison Marchantrecreates the world of maid-of-all-work Hannah Cullwick (1833-1906),who staged photographs of herselfas gifts for her upper-class lover.Through these images, & Cullwick’s

Tues-Sun & bank-holiday Mons 11-5.Admission £7, seniors £5, students£4, children £2; family (2+4) £16.Fatal Attraction: Diana &Actaeon–The Forbidden Gaze(21 Mar-31 May 2009)Paintings, prints, drawings,photographs & artefacts, by Cranach,Delacroix, Dürer, Rembrandt,Cézanne, Degas, Klimt & Schiele,based on the mythical tale of thehunter Actaeon. Transformed into astag by the goddess Diana as apunishment for gazing upon hernakedness, he was hunted down &killed by his own hounds. Bookingon 01926 645500, or via website.

COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RNTel: 020 7848 2526www.courtauld.ac.ukDaily 10-6. Admission £5,concessions £4; UK students &children under 18 free; all admission free Mon 10-2 (except bank holidays). Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs ofthe Omega Workshops 1913-19(18 June-20 Sept 2009)Using the extensive collection ofdecorative arts, paintings & designsbequeathed to the Institute by theartist & critic Roger Fry, theexhibition investigates the way theOmega Workshops producedobjects, the use of design drawings,the collaborative nature of itsworking practices & the Workshops’

applies) on 020 7323 8181, or via website.The Paul & Jill Ruddock Gallery of Medieval Europe (opens 25 Mar 2009) The Museum’s third new permanentgallery to open this year is devotedto material dating from 1050 to 1500AD. Among British, European &Byzantine treasures are the 4th-century Royal Gold Cup, made inParis; sacred art from abbeys, priories& convents; royal art from thepalaces of Westminster & Clarendon;& the world-famous 12th-centuryLewis chessmen.

CEREDIGION MUSEUM Coliseum, Terrace Rd, Aberystwyth,Dyfed SY23 2AQTel: 01970 633088 http://museum.ceredigion.gov.ukMon-Sat 10-5; closed 10 Apr.Admission free.Scouting in Ceredigion: A Centenary Exhibition(1 May-27 June 2009)Scouting in Aberystwyth began in1909 with the formation of a Baden-Powell Boy Scout Troop. Thoughchanged over the last 100 years, itremains a treasured institution & partof local community life–as shown bythe photographs & memorabilia ondisplay.

COMPTON VERNEY Kineton, nr Stratford-upon-Avon,Warwicks CV35 9HZTel: 01926 645500www.comptonverney.org.uk

National Gallery: Picasso: Challenging the Past.


HOVE MUSEUM & ART GALLERY19 New Church Rd, Hove, E Sussex BN3 4ABTel: 03000 290900 www.hove.virtualmuseum.infoTues-Sat 10-5, Sun 2-5; closed 10Apr. Admission free.Follies of Europe(until 3 May 2009)In its follies, Europe has a superblegacy of idiosyncratic, oftenexperimental, architecture. Built forpleasure & conceived with passion &self-indulgence, these fancifulbuildings reflect & celebrate theindividuals who created them.Photographer Nic Barlow documentsexamples from Baroque to moderntimes, ranging from hill houses inAustria to Brighton’s extravagantRoyal Pavilion.

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMNORTHThe Quays, Trafford Wharf Rd,Manchester M17 1TZTel: 0161 836 4000 www.iwm.org.ukDaily 10-6. Admission free.Captured: The Extraordinary Life of Prisoners of War (23 May 2009-3 Jan 2010)A major exhibition dedicated to theexperiences of British andCommonwealth prisoners of war &civil internees during World War II inEurope & the Far East. It also looksat the lives of Italian & Germanprisoners in the UK & their relationswith their captors. A mix of objects -including coded camp diaries, theslouch hat belonging to artist RonaldSearle, & a bed sheet embroideredin a Hong Kong prison camp withthe names of more than 1,000internees - reveal personal stories &the truth behind such modernlegends as The Great Escape, Colditz& The Bridge Over the River Kwai.

JERRAM GALLERYHalf Moon St, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LN

Tel 01935 815261 www.jerramgallery.com Mon-Sat 9.30-5. Admissionfree.Katherine Swinfen Eady (12-27 June 2009)The subjects of 30landscapes & still-lives by thisBritish artist include

Scottish farms &coastal scenery, the rolling hills

of Wiltshire, & the deserts & olivegroves of Palestine.

JERSEY MUSEUMThe Weighbridge, St Helier, Jersey,Channel Islands JE2 3NFTel: 01534 633300www.jerseyheritagetrust.org Daily 10-4 (from 6 Apr 9.30-5).Admission £7, seniors £6.40 children£4; family (2+2 or 1+3) £20.Marilyn (25 Mar-Dec 2009)

Stage & personal costumes worn byMarilyn Monroe, with accessories,jewellery, keepsakes & trinkets thatafford an intimate look into the lifeof the screen idol. Also on show areitems from Monroe’s own collectionof artwork, personal items, clothes,letters, jewellery & awards.

KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY& MUSEUMArgyle St, Glasgow G3 8AGTel: 0141 276 9599www.glasgowmuseums.comMon-Thurs & Sat 10-5; Fri & Sun 11-5. Gallery admission free.Dr Who exhibition (28 Mar 2009-4 Jan 2010)Interactive displays & scary momentsabound in this touring exhibition ofprops, costumes, monsters & othercreatures from the Doctor Whotelevision series. Admission £7.50,concessions & children £4.50; family(2+2) £18. Booking (fee applies) on08444 815816 or viawww.secxtra.com.

LIBRARY & MUSEUM OF FREEMASONRYFreemasons’ Hall, Great Queen St,London WC2B 5AZTel: 020 7395 9257www.freemasonry.london.museumMon-Fri 10-5. Admission free. Freemasonry & the French Revolution(1 July-18 Dec 2009)Though traditionally non-political,Masonic lodges in England saw theirrelationship with the state changeafter 1789. An influx into their ranksof refugees from across the Channelgave rise to conspiracy theories, &lodges were forced to register lists oftheir members with local authorities.Among items on display areelaborately-crafted miniatures &medallions produced by some of the120,000 French prisoners of war,some of whom established theirown Masonic lodges in England.

MODERN ART OXFORD30 Pembroke St, Oxford OX1 1BPTel: 01865 722733www.modernartoxford.org.ukTues-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5. Admission free. Transmission Interrupted (18 Apr-21 June 2009)Sculpture, painting, film, video &performance by Pilar Albarracín, YtoBarrada, David Thorne, Lia Perjovschi& a dozen other international nameslook at the way contemporary artistsdisrupt prevailing forms of art. Silke Otto-Knapp: Paintings (4 July-13 Sept 2009)Otto-Knapp works with watercolour& gouache paints on canvas usingphotographs as a basis of hercarefully-constructed compositions.This exhibition surveys paintingsfrom recent years, in which stagedfigures from the world of dance &fashion are rendered in gold & silverpigment.

2007 Turner prize-winner MarkWallinger, chosen to create the giantEbbsfleet Landmark project (a modelof it is in the foyer), selects exhibitsthat examine notions of the liminal:thresholds between physical,political or metaphysical realms.Artists include Vija Celmins, ThomasDemand, Albrecht Dürer, BruceNauman, Giuseppe Penone & FredSandback. Admission £9, seniors £8,students & unemployed £6, children£4.50 (under-12s free outside schoolhours). Booking (fee applies) on0871 663 2500, or via website.

THE HERBERTJordan Well, Coventry, W Midlands CV1 5QP Tel: 024 7683 2386www.theherbert.orgMon-Sat 10-5.30, Sun 12-5.Admission free.China: Journey To The East (2 May-19 July 2009)This British Museum touringexhibition features artefacts fromone of the most importantcivilisations, a major influence onmany parts of the world throughtrade & the movement of peoples. Itdelves into 3,000 years of Chinesehistory & culture, under themes ofplay & performance, technology,belief & festivals, food & drink, &language & writing. A specially-madefilm looks at the lives of the Chinesecommunity in present-day Coventry.

NATIONAL HERITAGE GUIDE

writings, Marchant examineswomen’s labour & 19th-centurysocial barriers.

GAWTHORPE HALLPadiham, nr Burnley, Lancs BB12 8UATel: 01282 771004www.lancashire.gov.ukTues-Thurs, Sat, Sun 1-5. Admission£4, concessions £3, children free.Illusions of Elizabeth I (2 June-1 Nov 2009)Inspired by the 450th anniversary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth I,members of the Phoenix ArtistsTextile Group present their ownportraits of the monarch. With thesemodern works on fabric are genuineElizabethan embroideries fromGawthorpe’s fine Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth textile collection.

GEFFRYE MUSEUM136 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8EATel: 020 7739 9893www.geffrye-museum.org.ukTues-Sat 10-5; Sun & bank-holidayMons 12-5; closed 10 Apr. Admissionfree.Ethelburger Tower: At home in a high-rise(7 Apr-31 Aug 2009)In a series of images, Mark Cooperexplores the living-rooms of hisneighbours in a block of flats inBattersea. He photographed theinteriors as he found them, tidy oruntidy, showing how these near-identical architectural spaces havebeen adapted by residents to suittheir own interests, taste & lifestyle.

HANDEL HOUSE MUSEUM25 Brook St, London W1K 4HB Tel: 020 7495 1685www.handelhouse.orgTues-Sat 10-6 (Thurs until 8), Sun12-6; closed 10 Apr; open 13 Apr10-6. Admission £5, concessions£4.50, children £2.Handel Reveal’d(8 Apr-25 Oct 2009)To mark the 250th anniversary ofhis death, an exhibition in therooms in which Handellived & worked for 36 years(including the bedroom inwhich he died on 14 April1759) explores thecomposer’s life & character.Among the exhibits are a lifemask of Handel by Roubiliac;the score for his final piece ofmusic–Jephtha–hand-written in1751; & moving reports of the greatcomposer’s final days.

HAYWARD GALLERY South Bank Centre, London SE1 8XXTel: 08703 800 400www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-artsDaily 10-6 (Fri until 10). Admission charges vary.The Russian Linesman: Frontiers, Borders & Thresholds (until 4 May 2009)

Victoria & Albert Museum:Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age ofMagnificence


early mythological & religiouspaintings to more symbolic & formalrepresentations. This exhibitionbrings together internationally-acclaimed contemporaryartists–including Bobby Baker, GayleChong Kwan, Anya Gallaccio, AntonyGormley, Subodh Gupta, AaronHead, Damien Hirst & AnthonyKey–who each bring a ‘dish’ to thetable & show that food is still on theart menu.

NORWICH CASTLE MUSEUM & ART GALLERYCastle Meadow, Norwich NR1 3JUTel: 01603 493625www.museums.norfolk.gov.ukMon-Fri 10-4.30; Sat 10-5 (school-holiday periods Mon-Sat 10-5.30); Sun 1-5. Admission(includes castle) £6, concessions£5.10, children £4.40. Mary Newcomb’s Odd Universe: Fire, Earth, Water, Air (8 May-28 June 2009).The work of rural visionary & self-taught painter Mary Newcomb(1922-2008) whose lyrical paintingsof Norfolk & Suffolk made her one ofBritain’s best-loved painters.

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY9 North Pallant, Chichester, W Sussex PO19 1TJTel: 01243 774557www.pallant.org.ukTues-Sat 10-5 (Thurs until 8), Sun &bank holidays 12.30-5. Admission£7.50, students £4, children £2.30;family (2+2) £17; all half-price Tues(all day) & Thurs (5-8).Patrick Caulfield: Between the Lines (28 Mar-17 June 2009) This major survey of the work ofCaulfield (1936-2005) includesrarely-seen studies that reveal theideas & techniques behind hisdistinctive paintings, prints & otherprojects such as a large-scaletapestry for the British Library &Portsmouth Cathedral’s organ doors.Bawden, Nash, Ravilious & the British Landscape (until 31 May 2009) An exhibition dedicated to thegeneration of artists who, betweenthe wars, took inspiration from thelandscape of Britain, seeing it as asource of national pride & identity. Itshows woodcut prints, etchings &watercolours by Paul Nash, EdwardBawden, & Eric Ravilious alongsideworks of their contemporaries JohnNash & Ethelbert White.

QUENINGTON OLD RECTORYQuenington, nr Cirencester, Glos GL7 5BNTel: 01285 750 358www.freshair2009.comDaily 10-5. Admission £2.50 (21June admission £4 in aid of theNational Gardens Scheme), children free.Fresh Air 09 (14 June-4 July 2009)This biennial sculpture exhibition

MUSEUM OF LONDONDOCKLANDSNo 1 Warehouse, West India Quay,Hertsmere Rd, London E14 4ALTel: 020 7001 9844www.museumindocklands.org.ukDaily 10-6. Admission £5 (valid oneyear), concessions £3, students &children under 16 free. Port of London Authority: A century of service(30 Mar-19 Apr 2009)Part of a year-long celebration of thePLA’s centenary, the exhibition givesthe history & development of theorganisation charged with ensuringthe river remains an economicpowerhouse for London & thesouth-east. It includes stories fromstaff about their working lives onthe tidal Thames & lettersconcerning the PLA’s role in Polarexpeditions during the early 1900s.

NATIONAL FISHING HERITAGE CENTREAlexandra Dock, Grimsby, Lincs DN31 1UZTel: 01472 323345www.nelincs.gov.ukMon-Fri 10-5; Sat, Sun & bankholidays 10.30-5.30. Admission £6,concessions £4; family (2+5) £12.Titanic: Honour & Glory (4 July-27 Sept 2009)Artefacts & interior fittings from RMSTitanic & her sister ships Britannic &Olympic reveal stories of the liner’sfateful voyage of 1912. Memorabiliaincludes the Engineer’s lucky teddybear & a watch frozen by the icywater at the exact time the Titanicsank. Also on show are props &costumes from the 1997 film.

NATIONAL GALLERY Trafalgar Sq, London WC2N 5DNTel: 020 7747 2885www.nationalgallery.org.ukDaily 10-6 (Fri until 9). Admission to gallery free. Sainsbury Wing:Picasso: Challenging the Past (until 7 June 2009)Around 60 works by Picasso,juxtaposed with Old Masters,demonstrate how the Cubist artistsometimes borrowed themes &techniques from painters such as ElGreco, Velázquez, Rembrandt,Delacroix & Ingres. Admission £12,seniors £11 (Tues 2.30-6, £6),students & children 12-18 £6, under-12s free; family (2+4 over-12s) £24. Booking (fee applies) on0844 2091778, or via website.Corot to Monet (8 July-20 Sept 2009)More than 80 sun-baked landscapesfrom the Gallery’s collection chartthe development of landscapepainting from the late 18th centuryto 1874–the year of the firstImpressionist exhibition. It featuresthe Barbizon School, nearFontainebleau, where landscapeartists such as Théodore Rousseau &Jean-François Millet gathered to

work out of doors, & includes beachscenes by Boudin & Monet, showingthe influence of the Barbizon groupon the nascent Impressionists.Admission free.

NATIONAL MARITIMEMUSEUM Romney Rd, London SE10 9NFTel: 020 8858 4422www.nmm.ac.ukDaily 10-5. Admission to museum free. North-West Passage: An Arctic Obsession(23 May 2009-3 Jan 2010)The search for a lucrative short-cutsea route linking the North Atlanticwith the North Pacific inspired long &heroic endeavours. The exhibitionlooks at the extraordinary feats &tragedies surrounding famousattempts. Drawings record earlyencounters with the Inuit, from an1829-33 expedition; a flagstaff onshow marks the discovery of theNorth Magnetic Pole in 1831; letters& relics recall a doomed 1845voyage in which all 129 expeditionmembers perished; & a tribute ispaid to Norwegian explorer RoaldAmundsen who in 1903-06 finallymanaged to sail the route betweenthe two great oceans.

NATIONAL PORTRAITGALLERY St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HETel: 020 7306 0055www.npg.org.ukDaily 10-6 (Thurs, Fri until 9).Admission to gallery free.Constable Portraits: The Painter & his Circle(until 14 June 2009)The first exhibition dedicated toConstable’s portraits & the insightsthey bring to the artist’s work, life &relationships assembles loans fromboth sides of the Atlantic frompublic & private collections. It offersthe opportunity to re-evaluate &rediscover the previouslymarginalised work of a paintercelebrated primarily as a landscapeartist. Admission £5, seniors £4.50,concessions & children £4.

NEW ART GALLERY WALSALLGallery Square, Walsall W Midlands WS2 8LGTel: 01922 654400www.artatwalsall.org.ukMon-Sat, & bank-holiday Mons 10-5,Sun 11-4. Admission free.Pot Luck: Food & Art (22 May-26 July 2009)From antiquity to today, food hasbeen a recurring subject in art; from

Royal Academy: Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R Miller collection

NATIONAL HERITAGE GUIDE


Examples of the creative range ofthe remarkable Bawden/Raviliousduo, who first worked together 80years ago. Their ceramics,watercolours & graphics continue toinspire today’s designers & artists;York-based Mark Hearld offers acontemporary take on their work.

SCIENCE MUSEUM Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DDTel: 0870 870 4868 www.sciencemuseum.org.uk Daily 10-6. Admission to museum free. Wallace & Gromit present: A World of Cracking Ideas(28 Mar-1 Nov 2009)This family-orientated interactiveshow, based on AardmanAnimations’ cartoon inventor & hisdog, combines objects from theMuseum’s collections with Wallace’seccentric fictional contraptions.Visitors will be encouraged to comeup with their own creative ideas, &learn how to protect intellectualproperty through patents,trademarks, designs & copyright.Admission £9, concessions: £7;family (1+2) £21, (2+2) £30.Booking (fee applies) on 0870 8704868, or via website.

THE SILK MILLSilk Mill Lane, off Full St, Derby DE1 3AFTel: 01332 255308www.derby.gov.ukMon 11-5, Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun &bank holidays 1-4. Admission free.Diecast delights: A 75th birthday celebration(until 18 Sept 2009)Meccano’s range of Dinky modelcars, planes, ships & railway

accessories revolutionised the worldof play when they first appeared in1934. This exhibition brings togetherexamples of these popular toys–nowcollectable antiques–from membersof the Dinky Toy Collectors’Association,

SWANSON GALLERYThurso Library, Davidson’s Lane,Thurso, Highland KW14 7AFTel: 01847 896357www.highland.gov.ukMon-Wed 1-5, Fri 1-8, Sat 10-1.Admission free.Matisse: Drawing With Scissors –Late works 1950-54(30 May-27 June 2009)This touring exhibition features 35vibrant lithographic prints producedin the last four years of Matisse’s life,when the artist was confined to hisbed, & includes many of his best-known images, such as The Snail &the Blue Nudes.

TATE MODERNBankside, London SE1 9TGTel: 020 7887 8008www.tate.org.uk/modernDaily 10-6 (Fri, Sat until 10).Admission to gallery free. Futurism (12 June-20 Sept 2009)A celebration of the centenary of thisdramatic art movement launched in1909. The Futurists, a small group ofradical Italian artists, rejectedanything old & proposed an art thatcelebrated the modern world ofindustry & technology. The exhibitionalso looks at other art movementssuch as Cubism, Vorticism & RussianCubo-Futurism, that reacted to it.Highlights include Boccioni’s bronzesculpture of a leaping man, Picasso’sHead of a Woman, Nevinson’sVorticist piece Bursting Shell, &works by Braque, Leger, Malevich &Duchamp. Admission £12,concessions £10, children under 12free. Booking (fee applies) on 0207887 8888, or via website.

TATE LIVERPOOL Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BBTel: 0151 702 7400www.tate.org.uk/liverpoolDaily 10-5.50. Admission to gallery free. Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour,1950 to Today(29 May-13 Sept 2009)A look at the moment in 20th-century art when a group of artists began to perceive colour as ‘ready-made’ rather than asscientific or expressive, thisexhibition is devoted to thesignificance of colour incontemporary art. It includes worksby more than 40 artists, amongthem Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol,Gerhard Richter, Frank Stella, YvesKlein, Dan Flavin, Angela Bulloch &Cory Archangel. Admission £8,concessions £6. Booking (feeapplies) on 0151 702 7400, or viawebsite.

(until late Aug 2009)An insight into the work of theCorps, & its aims in Afghanistan,using photography, video footage,oral histories, paintings by war artistGordon Rushmer, & exhibits broughtback from the field of action.Aspects include the Marines’ rangeof war-time roles, life in camp,contact with friends & loved ones, &the effect on morale of colleagues’wounding or death.

ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY BUILDINGNational Gallery complex, TheMound, Edinburgh EH2 2ELTel: 0131 624 6200www.nationalgalleries.orgDaily 10-5 (Thurs until 7). Admission to gallery free. Turner & Italy(27 Mar-7 June 2009)The only UK showing for this majorexhibition explores the enduringrelationship between JMW Turner &Italy, whose climate enchanted thepainter. It includes loans fromcollections in America, Australia &Europe, plus paintings, sketchbooks& watercolours from Turner’s own library. Admission £8,concessions £6.

SCARBOROUGH ART GALLERYThe Crescent, Scarborough, N Yorks YO11 2PWTel: 01723 374753www.scarboroughartgallery.org.ukTues-Sun & bank holidays 10-5.Admission (valid one year) £2,concessions £1.80, children free.East Coasting: Art & Design by Edward Bawden & EricRavilious, with Mark Hearld(until 4 May 2009)

takes place in a 5-acre gardenbordered by trees & running water &features works–all on sale, from £50to £35,000–by 90 artists in bronze,glass, stone, ceramic, fabric, plastic& resin. Visitors can see howchanging light, weather &surrounding foliage affect thepieces.

ROYAL ACADEMY Piccadilly, London W1J 0BDTel: 020 7300 8000www.royalacademy.org.ukDaily 10-6 (Fri until 10). Admissioncharges vary.Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur RMiller collection(21 Mar-7 June 2009)More than 150 works by the prolificJapanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi(1798-1861) whose images ofJapan’s traditional warrior heroeshelped keep alive his country’sgreat myths & legends. Heportrayed fashionable beauties &actors, produced comical & satiricalworks, & transformed the genre oflandscape prints by incorporatingWestern conventions such as use ofperspective & of cast shadows.Admission £9, seniors £8, students£7, children 12-18 £4, children 8-11£2.80. Booking (fee applies) on0879 8488484, or via website.

ROYAL MARINES MUSEUMEastney Esplanade, Southsea, Hants PO4 9PXTel: 023 9281 9385www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.ukDaily 10-5. Admission £5.95, seniors£4.75, students & children 5-16£3.75; family (2+4) £14.50.Return to Helmand: Royal Marines in Afghanistan

V&A Museum of Childhood: Snozzcumbers & Frobscottle


Daily 10-5.45 (Fri until 10).Admission to museum free.Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence(4 Apr-19 July 2009)An exhibition bringing togetheraround 200 objects examines theflourishing of the Baroque styleduring a time when great European& colonial empires were ruled byabsolute monarchs & the RomanCatholic Church was all-powerful.Displays cover architecture, furniture,silver, ceramics, painting, sculpture, &textiles. The exhibition also exploresthe Baroque style in performance &the theatre; the public city square;religious spaces including St Peter’sBasilica in Rome; & secular spacessuch as Louis XIV’s Palace ofVersailles. Admission £11, seniors £9,students & children (12-17 years) £6.Booking (fee applies) on 0844 2091770, or via website.Hats: An Anthology by StephenJones (until 10 May 2009)Drawn from V&A & internationalcollections, exhbits range from a17th-century Puritan’s hat through a1950s Balenciaga couture piece tomore recent headwear by StephenJones & his contemporaries & thelatest creations by young millinerssuch as Noel Stewart. The exhibitioninvestigates the cultural & historicimportance of millinery, looks attechniques, materials & processes;the buying & selling of hats & theirwearing & etiquette. Admission £5,concessions £4, children under 12free. Booking (fee applies) on 0844209 1770, or via website.

V&A MUSEUM OF CHILDHOODCambridge Heath Rd, London E2 9PATel: 020 8983 5200www.vam.ac.uk/moc Daily 10-5.45. Admission free.Snozzcumbers & Frobscottle (2 May-6 Sept 2009)A celebration of the coming togetherof two creative forces, leading intothe quirky, humorous world ofQuentin Blake & Roald Dahl. Originalmanuscripts & illustrations are ondisplay revealing the way anillustrator works with an author.Exhibits include the Norwegiansandal on which the Big FriendlyGiant’s footwear was based, a

chance to listen to Dahl reading hisown tales, film of Blake at workin his London studio, & aninteractive replica of the BFG’scave.

WALLACE COLLECTION Hertford House, Manchester Sq,London W1U 3BNTel: 020 7563 9500www.wallacecollection.orgDaily 10-5. Admission free. Treasures of the Black Death (until 10 May 2009)In the 14th century, the Black Deathwiped out a third of the populationof Europe. Persecuted by localcommunities, who accused them ofpoisoning wells, many Jews buriedtheir most precious belongings,hoping to retrieve them later. Itemsdiscovered five & six centuries later,on show here, include medievalsilver vessels & coins, & the threeearliest known examples of Jewishwedding rings.

WHITECHAPEL ART GALLERY 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QXTel: 020 7522 7888www.whitechapel.orgWed-Sun 11-6 (Thurs until 9).Admission free. Isa Genzken–Open, Sesame! (5 Apr-21 June 2009)A major retrospective for thisGerman sculptor, regarded as one ofthe most important artists of hergeneration, spans the late 1970s totoday. While not generally widelyknown in the UK, her sculptureshave been an influence on youngergenerations.

THOMAS WILLIAMS FINE ART22 Old Bond St, London W1S 4PYTel: 020 7491 1485 www.thomaswilliamsfineart.com Mon-Fri 10-6; closed 4 May.Admission free. Barry Fantoni: Public Eye, Private Eye(22 Apr-22 May 2009)Well-known for his work on PrivateEye since 1963, Fantoni has beenfront-page cartoonist & art critic forThe Times, a regular illustrator forRadio Times & The Listener & amusic reviewer for Punch. He hasalso been a TV presenter, musician,playwright & author of detectivenovels. The exhibition includes hislandscapes, interiors, & images offriends & lovers.

The details in this guide were correctat the time of going to press, but maybe subject to change. For a morecomprehensive guide visit ourwebsite–www.nationalheritage.org.ukMaterial for possible inclusion in thenext listings (September 2009-January 2010) may be sent [email protected]

Tel: 028 9042 8428www.uftm.org.ukMon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-6, Sun 11-6. Admission £5.40, concessions& children £3.40; family (2+3) £15.20, (1+3) £10.80. Views of the Past (until 1 June 2009)This photographic exhibitionexplores local life in NorthernIreland between 1860 & 1960. Morethan 40 images show aspects ofhome, work, education, health &how people passed their leisuretime. Also on display are examplesof clothing, medical equipment, toys& games, & utilitarian objects fromhomes, schools & workplaces.

VESTRY HOUSE MUSEUMVestry Rd, Walthamstow, London E17 9NH Tel: 020 8496 4391www.walthamforest.gov.ukWed-Sun 10-5. Admission free.A Tale of Two Tea Sets(20 June-23 Aug 2009)The Walthamstow Tea Service,produced in the 1820s for a well-to-do family, consists of hand-paintedporcelain cups, saucers and bowlsbearing images of local houses. Theexhibition considers the changes toWalthamstow since then, andcontrasts the original with a moderntea service created by artist RachelI’Anson with pupils at KelmscottSchool .

VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RLTel: 020 7942 2000www.vam.ac.uk

TULLIE HOUSE MUSEUM & ART GALLERYCastle St, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8TP Tel: 01228 618718www.tulliehouse.co.ukMon-Sat 10-4, Sun 12-4 (from 1Apr, Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5).Admission free.Donald Wilkinson: Stains of Light(until 17 May 2009)A major retrospective of work fromthe 1960s to the present day, bythis Cumbrian landscape artist whohas also produced work in Scotland,France & Spain.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS MUSEUM& ART GALLERYCivic Centre, Mount Pleasant, RoyalTunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1JNTel: 01892 554171www.tunbridgewellsmuseum.orgMon-Sat 9.30-5, Sun 10-4; closed10-13 Apr. Admission free.By Royal Appointment: HowTunbridge Wells became ‘Royal’(until 2 May 2009)The town celebrates one hundredyears since it was given the ‘Royal’title by King Edward VII, reflectingspecial links with the monarchy thatstretch back over four centuries.Images & objects from theMuseum’s collection show thechanging nature of royal visits–fromthat of Henrietta Maria in 1629 tothat of Princess Anne in 2006.

ULSTER FOLK & TRANSPORTMUSEUM153 Bangor Rd, Cultra, Holywood, Co Down, Northern Ireland BT18 0EU

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery: Matthew Boulton: Sellingwhat all the world desires

Les Enluminures at Wartski:Roman to Renaissance: A private collection of rings.

EVENTS

Spring’s visit it to the home of the composer George FrederickHandel in Brook Street, Mayfair. He first moved in as the firstoccupier in 1723 when he followed the Hanoverian King George toLondon, and lived and worked there for 36 years, dying in thecompact townhouse in April 1759. It was here that Handelcomposed most of his finest works, including The Messiah, Zadokthe Priest and The Royal Fireworks Music.

Using archaeological evidence including scrapings of the originalpaint and an inventory of the contents taken after his death, thehouse has been returned to the way Handel would have known it.Among the objects on display is a letter from Handel to hislibrettist, Charles Jennens, about the Messiah, and Mozart's hand-written arrangement of a Handel fugue. There are also portraitsand caricatures of the great man.

Handel made use of the whole house with his servants sleepingon the top floor – where in the 1970s the rock star Jimi Hendrixlived for a year. On the second floor was his bedroom and dressingroom, and on the first he composed, rehearsed and he wouldinformal performances. From the ground floor he sold music andtickets to his concerts.

To mark the 250th anniversary of his death, a special exhibitionopens in April, curated by Christopher Hogwood, Handel’sbiographer. Handel Reveal’d will look at aspects of the composerslife in detail which will be seen for the first time, looking at hishealth and his accounts among other aspects of his life.

Among the exhibits will be a rarely seen life mask by Roubiliac,loaned from a private collection, and the scores of the final pieceof music Handel wrote, Jeptha. It will also look at his eating habits– a notable gourmand, he was caricatured in his day as an organ-playing pig, and called The Harmonious Bore.

The exhibition will also look at his patrons. Although he was nevera court composer as such, he wrote for cardinals, lords and mostfamously kings all his life.

But from middle age onwards he had a succession of healthproblems, including strokes, palsy and finally blindness, and theexhibition will display the sorts of surgical instruments he wouldhave been treated with.

On the evening of April 13, 1759, Handel had had guests fordinner, but after they had left he told his servants that he wasretiring and “had done with the world”. He died in his bed the nextmorning.

There will be other visits this summer and autumn, so pleasecheck our website, www.nationalheritage.org.uk

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THE HANDEL HOUSE MUSEUM, May 14th, 4pm

To: Liz MooreNational Heritage Administration CentreRye Road, Hawkhurst, Kent TN18 5DW(01580 752 052)

I am a member of National Heritage, Please send me one freeticket and ……. tickets at £12.50 each for the visit to TheHandel House Museum on Thursday, May 14th at 4pm. I enclose remittance and stamped addressed envelope.

On Thursday evenings Handel House hold concerts at 6.30pm.Numbers are limited to 28 seats only and sold on a first comebasis. Tickets are £9, or £7.50 for concessions, each. If you wishto stay for the concert after the tour, please complete thesection below and enclose your cheques for the full amount.

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THE HANDEL HOUSE MUSEUM25 BROOK STREET, MAYFAIR, LONDON W1K 4HB

Thursday, 14th May, 4pm

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