Testing times
Felicity Owen looks at how London's major museums are faring
Art has recently been vying with football for the headlines, the saving of another Raphael for the National Gallery causing as much controversy as a Beckham sold to Real Madrid for much the same consideration. In both worlds large capital sums are in few hands and our national museums and galleries, after a brief moment of Millennium glory, are woefully short of income and reserves to maintain their international eminence. Once the brouhaha has died down, star turns make little difference, whereas leadership and management of a strong team are the vital ingredients of success. After a bout of musical chairs, London museums now have the benefit of a vintage crop of directors working round the clock for an annual stipend comparable to the footballer's monthly wage.
The most testing scenario faces Neil MacGregor, who has moved from the National Gallery to the British Museum, the goliath presenting world cultures and accordingly of growing significance. With admission free, all state-funded institutions are dependent on grant-in-aid plus donations, sponsorship and earnings from exhibitions, catering and retail.
In the BM's 250th year — culminating on 11 December in the opening of Enlightenment, a permanent exhibition in the sensitively refurbished King's Library — the grant is only around £37 million with annual increments far below inflation. Savage cuts to reduce the deficit caused by the drop in overseas visitors became inevitable: the intended Study Centre has been sold, gallery opening times and exhibitions curtailed, and restructuring introduced affecting most departments including the curatorial. Despite some 15 per cent of redundancies — some to the detriment of scholarship in fields where the BM is world leader — morale remains high, largely thanks to MacGregor's unique ability to involve staff, never forgetting the warders who are his front line.
Much remains to be done and here, as everywhere, acquisitions are virtually dependent on outside help, notably from the overstretched National Heritage Memorial Fund, and the National Art Collections Fund, marking its centenary with an outstanding exhibition Saved! at the Hayward Gallery from 23 October.
This should lead to increased membership and support for retaining our heritage.
The V&A, the world's finest decorative arts museum, is on an upward curve, and Mark Jones, fresh from the National Museums of Scotland, has increased the tempo. Five new paintings galleries, restoring the superb Constable Collection to sympathetic surroundings, open on 26 November, and the redesign of the funereal-looking Pirelli gardens should prove a draw next year, provided the restaurant and cafe improve to match the setting. The director's Ten-Year Future Plan, costed at £150 million, looks to bring the entire conglomeration alive; and to emphasise the contemporary in this showplace of design he includes the controversial £75 million Libeskind building, £35 million of which has already been promised by private donors. Whatever its merits, there is a warning from the BM's experience: the much-admired £100 million Great Court built without endowment takes £1 million a year to run. So far the V&A has been well treated with a grant of £34 million. But, although numbers have nearly doubled to over 2.5 million — with free admission and with the Art Deco exhibition drawing a record 360,000 paying visitors — there is still a hill to climb to reach the BM's attendance of near 4.5 million.
Charles Saumarez Smith has moved from the adjacent National Portrait Gallery to the National Gallery, where next spring a 300-seat café will open straight on to the largely pedestrianised Trafalgar Square. This should attract a new public, especially on rainy weekends, and with luck they will venture upstairs to the galleries. Any changes intended by the director are awaited with interest: meanwhile an El Greco exhibition opening on 11 February 2004 will be a crowd-puller.
The NPG, small but successful in generating some 35 per cent of its outgoings, is headed by Sandy Nairn, well versed in management from his experience at Tate. Millennium extensions have allowed space for more portraits of living personalities, and a younger public has also responded well to the annual BP Portrait Award. Nothing remains of the fusty warehouse faced by Roy Strong in the 1960s, and the Heinz Archive and Library is a valuable asset to a gallery also specialising in portrait photography.
Tate, a remarkable empire extending from London to Liverpool and St Ives, remains in the firm hands of Sir Nicholas Serota. Tate Modern has a new director, Vicente Todoll, who faces the challenge of creating an exciting programme now the novelty has worn off. Blockbusters, the obvious answer, are increasingly scarce, and this country has only Turner in the top-ten international artistic draws. At Tate Britain from 9 October, Turner and Venice will show the master and his contemporaries in a perfect setting, while at Tate Modern photography may help to boost joint attendances above five million, with subsequent high earnings.
Curators are the cavalry of every museum, their knowledge and creativity the basis of displays and exhibitions, yet the nationals, heavy with fund-raising departments that nurture precious sponsors and benefactors, train few young scholars. Increasingly, senior posts go to candidates from overseas, our great municipal galleries, once the nurseries, being devoid of specialists. The goodwill of both government and local authorities towards museums soon evaporates in the face of demands from the vote-catchers — health and education. The Heritage Lottery Fund and charities enable the national galleries to help the less fortunate with picture loans and regular touring partnerships; for example, next year the NO shares an exhibition with Bristol and Newcastle's Laing Gallery. The government has added £3.5 million, little compensation for failing to fund the 'Renaissance in the Regions' programme adequately: only three of the nine groups received the expected assistance.
It was depressing to read Estelle Morris's first interview as Minister for the Arts: she failed to mention her responsibilities but gave general advice to the Prime Minister. Even a change of government will bring little relief to museums when the Chancellor looks set on leaving the cupboard bare. The impressive new shadow culture secretary, John Whittingdale, is looking at ways to raise more money, such as diverting into the arts — from the often wasteful New Opportunities Fund — the 50 per cent share of Lottery money, as originally intended. More direct funding of museums would make for considerable saving, whereas currently competition for extra handouts in aid of special causes (such as social inclusion) gives the government political control.
Museums are well aware that their future depends on attracting a wider public and educating younger generations to enjoy some aspect of culture. To this end, every possible penny should go to funding posts for the staff, who actually bring our museums alive.
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