The criticism by Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, of the rise in uncivilised behaviour and noise following the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square which was reported in The Times, came to mind when I spoke to an audience of local government leaders and chief executives on the same day.
In my speech, at the annual conference of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association, I emphasised that collections can’t be confined behind the walls of cultural institutions and that engagement in different ways is the key to widening audiences.
This is something we have embodied in the MLA’s National Action Plan for Museums. We want to see museums engage people in new ways, encouraging them to become active co-producers, not merely consumers.
Knock-on effect
Place-shaping in the squares and streets of all our towns and cities and getting the cultural mix right, can lead to all sorts of social benefits as well as helping the local economy. Invariably it has a knock-on effect for tourism, the creative industries and the well-being of the community as a whole.
Seven Stories, The Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle is a good example. This £6.5m project to transform an old flour mill has succeeded in creating a major new tourist attraction and helped spearhead community-led regeneration to create one of the most distinctive cultural quarters of the area.
The MLA has been at the forefront of the promotion of such ideas particularly through the Living Places programme. The MLA chairs a coalition of five leading national culture and sports agencies (Arts Council England, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), English Heritage, MLA and Sport England) and aims to ensure that all communities, particularly those where there is considerable house-building, can benefit from cultural and sporting opportunities
The Culture and Sport Planning Toolkit, which the MLA has also helped develop, has advice, guidance and case studies to support the development of a quality cultural infrastructure. During October and November this year there will be a series of events across the country to disseminate the toolkit to local authorities, cultural professionals, planners and developers – these events represent the first time that all these groups have been brought together to discuss planning for culture and sport.
Changing the mindset
The recent government inquiry into Wirral libraries and the consultants report on Swindon Library Service, jointly funded by MLA and the local authority, have also put into the spotlight how councils can best use their building assets to provide communities with a complete package of services, including cultural ones.
The MLA’s regional field teams are available to local authorities to show them the benefits of co-location of services, whether it’s combining a museum, library and archive such as at the Treasure House, in Beverley, or joining a library with a GP surgery, a children’s centre or a council one-stop shop.
Of course opening up culture for all often involves difficult decisions and being prepared to change the way things are done. If one is to serve the local community properly there is often a need for the staff of museums, libraries and archives to alter their mindset and become more focussed on sharing their collections and spaces to a far greater extent than in the past.
These are ideas that local authorities throughout England should be considering, particularly at a time of recession when there is a need to give the economy a boost. Culture-led regeneration programmes have the potential not just to be better at engaging, but be better value for money as they are sensitive and responsive to cultural difference and expression. In the present context culture should always be considered as an opportunity rather than a cost – it is not something to be bolted on as a luxury.
July 2009