Museums

Lord Lee of Trafford Excerpts

Monday 10th June 2019 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Lee of Trafford]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the challenges and opportunities facing national museums.

[Lord Lee of Trafford (LD)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and declare an interest as chairman of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

My Lords, DCMS-sponsored museums operate independently, at arm’s length from the Government. However, Ministers and officials routinely engage with them to discuss policy, finance and other matters. Our national museums’ remarkable work is reflected in their enduring popularity, with four among the top 10 most visited museums worldwide. The Government are committed to fostering an environment in which museums can flourish, seizing opportunities and surmounting occasional challenges while ensuring the whole nation shares in the extraordinary benefits museum confer.

[Lord Lee of Trafford]

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the impressive new V&A museum in Dundee. The council leader and tourism officials told me how the museum has brought a real sense of pride to the city and boosted visitor numbers at other attractions there. Thus, V&A Dundee joins the list of regional affiliates, such as the Imperial War Museum North, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives and others, which have stimulated regeneration and spread tourism. Should the Government now be doing much more, and being much more proactive, in encouraging and part-funding other national museums and galleries to similarly develop more regional affiliates? Loaning exhibits, worthwhile though that is, is surely not enough.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I acknowledge the success of V&A Dundee, and setting up satellite museums under the same banner in other locations around the UK certainly sounds like a good idea on paper. However, it is down to the trustees and leadership of museums to decide how to deploy resources and display their artefacts and treasures. In 2018, the Government published a partnership framework to support and enable the national museums to act ever more strategically as a whole on how they work with the wider sector. Contrary to what the noble Lord said, experience has taught the sector that partnerships offer a successful approach for jointly curated exhibitions and galleries, exchanging skills, and so on. In 2016-17, the national museums loaned objects to 1,356 locations across the UK.