6 minute read
ROADS TO RECOVERY
Visitor footfall, once again, is filling the spaces of small galleries, museums and arts sites. Yet, after nearly a year of closure, they are reopening forever changed. Jessie Johnson investigates the ways The Arts Society shows support at grassroots to such precious places
ILLUSTRATION: CLARE NICHOLAS
Over the past year, friends of Gainsborough’s House in Su olk were sent postcards and a packet of wildflower seeds – tiny tokens of connection at a time of national crisis. As fate would have it, the museum and gallery had closed its doors for major refurbishments in October 2019. Yet, when lockdown struck in March 2020, forced redundancies together with the museum’s ineligibility for emergency funding saw the small team scrambling for fresh fundraising ideas. While the team eagerly look forward to welcoming visitors next spring, they fully acknowledge the current situation. ‘We never expected income over this time, but lockdown slowed the project down and we will feel this impact further down the line,’ admits Mark Bills, Arts Society Lecturer and executive director at the house.
During the pandemic our museums and galleries have been closed for the longest time since World War II – and it’s the smallest sites that now face the biggest threats. Independent museums and galleries make up around 71% of the sector, attracting some 24 million visitors every year. Yet coronavirus has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs, cuts to budgets and the near closure of iconic sites. Earlier this year the Fashion and Textile Museum in London was saved from the brink when a nail-biting crowdfunded bid for £42,000 came good, while the Florence Nightingale Museum, just a few miles west, will o er weekend openings only from June, while the museum undergoes a major review of operations. During lockdown, our cultural venues have pivoted beyond measure to stay connected – from virtual o erings such as Beamish’s Victorian classrooms to family bubble tours at the Roald Dahl Museum in Buckinghamshire. The idea of a society without these cultural touchstones – the places we go to feel inspired, see friends and volunteer – is a devastating prospect to behold.
In response, Arts Society Members are working in new and creative ways to support their local gems. The newly published Fi y Treasures book, compiled by the West Midlands Area, spotlights some of the most inspiring local places to visit, including – government restrictions willing –
guided tours at the Rugby School Chapel and the Red House Glass Cone Community Museum in Stourbridge, set to open in spring 2022. ‘Many of the places featured have had a really tough time, but we think they’ll come through because of people’s love for the arts,’ says a representative from the team. For independent sites, the guidance of charities such as the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) has been invaluable. Emma Chaplin, who was in post as head of AIM until this summer, believes the agile, creative make-up of smaller cultural venues could be key to their longevity. ‘It’s fair to say with government schemes and emergency funding for arts, most places are afloat, but they are battered, and a lot will depend on the success of reopening.’
The Arts Society is committed to helping our nation’s cultural sites on their roads to recovery. This autumn, we will be o ering a grant of £250 for each Society to donate to a local organisation with whom they either work or wish to support. Until then, our museums, galleries and arts venues are relying on us to come back and reimmerse ourselves in the cultural wonders on our doorstep for their survival.
Turn the page to discover just some of the ways Arts Society Members are supporting these places.
FIND OUT MORE
For more on The Arts Society’s grants, visit theartssociety.org/grants
In addition to the Fifty Treasures of the West Midlands publication, there are also the Fifty Treasures of the North West, South West, North East, Wessex, Beds & Herts, East Surrey and Chiltern Hills Area books. To purchase, email enquiries@theartssociety.org
Discover more about Heritage Volunteering at theartssociety.org/ heritage-volunteering
Read about The Pickling Project at theartssociety.org/arts-news-features/ pickling-project
A DONATION DELIVERED HANDS-ON HELP FINE SPECIMENS
Multi-artform venue Chapter in Cardi Hilary Olleson is Head of The Arts Society (chapter.org) is home to over 40 of Heritage Volunteering and has Wales’s most dynamic creative witnessed the myriad ways Members companies. It’s also the much- make a di erence to their local loved meeting place for THE ARTS arts venues. The Arts Society Cardi . SOCIETY IN This summer Members in
During lockdown, Members ACTION South Ayrshire will resume work were able to stream virtual with the Tam O’ Shanter project, meetings through Chapter’s cleaning, photographing and operational hub, which linked transcribing memorabilia owned by Lecturers to Members at home, hitch-free. the Robert Burns Museum for digitisation.
When concern started to grow for At the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens Chapter’s unfolding financial di culties, in Hertfordshire, Heritage Volunteers will the Society made a one-o donation of guide students, once more, around the £500 which, explains former Chair Dianne site’s iconic sculptures. In Sta ordshire, Gri ths, was a symbiotic way of showing Volunteers from two local Societies will support when it was needed most. resume posts at The Wedgwood Museum,
‘Chapter has been important in our some helping to log Josiah Wedgwood’s Members’ lives as it is a wonderful arts very own trials in clays and glazes. centre, celebrating its 50th anniversary ‘Our training is constantly this year,’ she says. ‘Its vision from the upgraded by experts and beginning was a space for artists to volunteering becomes a big part produce and present work, free from of Member’s lives,’ says Hilary. commercial pressures. As it’s been a hub ‘For smaller sites, a team of people for so many of us it was vital that we helping with your book collection continued to support this special place.’ or archives for free can be a lifeline.’ When a collection of plant and animal specimens preserved in fluid were rediscovered in a quiet corner of St Albans Museum, conservators knew they had to save them from certain extinction. Enter The Pickling Project. Thanks to a grant of £1,500 from The Arts Society, 16 volunteers – a mix of students and locals – were able to undertake training in the art of pickling and research, culminating in a three-month display at the museum over summer 2019.
‘The central aspect was to get volunteers involved, but to do that we had to give them specialist skills,’ explains Caroline Eldred, who was chair of St Albans Museum at the time of this project. ‘One of the volunteers has gone on to become a professional conservator. It’s due to The Arts Society grant that we could get volunteers involved at all and we were so grateful for the help.’
