The show must go on
Sir: The Arm's Length Principle is much loved by Ministers for the Arts, but appar- ently only selectively, as a way of avoiding difficult questions about the activities of the organisations they sponsor. Tim Renton's reply (Letters, 15 February) to James Hamilton's article on touring exhibitions (1 February), implicitly invoked this principle when he stated that the Museums and Gal- leries Commission sets its own priorities within the funds he makes available. That in itself is fair enough, but he cannot have his cake and eat it, for in the very next sen- tence it is clear that he expects to make a final decision on the future of the MGC's Travelling Exhibitions Unit. Last year an Office of Arts and Libraries review of the MGC recommended that new money should be found or the Unit closed down. Mr Renton then decided that it would make more sense to transfer the MGC's budget to the Area Museum Councils. Now he expects the Commission to submit for his consideration its proposals for the future of the Unit. Public bodies must be accountable for their actions, but this sort of supervision and direction of agencies denies them the very authority and compe- tence for which they were established. It also puts important services at the mercy of ministers' whims.
The availability of the nation's Art and Artefacts, frequently held only in the base- ments of our museums, is essential if pro- fessionals concerned with both the initia- tion and hiring in of travelling exhibitions are to serve their public responsibly.
Steve Brake
Clwyd County Council, Rhosddu Road, Wrexham, Clwyd.
'The jury members have instructed me to say that they expected a rather more spicy case.'
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