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The English Obsession with the New

The English Obsession with the New. Learning at the core of museums. Bridget McKenzie Flow Associates. Who am I?. My past is in cultural and heritage education: Education at Tate Head of Learning at the British Library Now, I run Flow Associates

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The English Obsession with the New

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  1. The English Obsession with the New Learning at the core of museums Bridget McKenzie Flow Associates

  2. Who am I? • My past is in cultural and heritage education: • Education at Tate • Head of Learning at the British Library • Now, I run Flow Associates • helping museums, arts and heritage bodies • digital strategies, development plans, learning

  3. I want to ask... Why are we building so many new museums and galleries in the UK? Do they increase cultural learning? Do they regenerate environments and economies? What are the alternatives? Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

  4. The future context for UK • Economic downturn is bad for us • Climate disruption (1 or 2 m sea level rise?) • Population growth • Biodiversity losses • Mass migration from coastal & desert zones • As developing world develops, they will ask for their assets back

  5. The future priorities for UK • Priority: Preserving heritage and knowledge • Priority: Digital access to culture and heritage • Priority: Post-oil innovation and creativity • So, what is the future of cultural tourism? • How does this affect cultural planning?

  6. Credit: Wilkinson Eyre/NMSI

  7. The utopian appeal of the new Museums are utopian A way to see and control the mess of reality A new museum = can start fresh and tell a new story This chance is appealing to those in power English have a ‘cult of virginity’ – want a new one Design for the Hirschorn Museum, Washington

  8. National pride, national protection Do nations need museums to define their identity? Do we believe a digital museum can do same as a building? Sarkozy proposed a grand new museum of France Now, plans to spend £650 m on digitising French culture Striking workers at the Louvre, Paris

  9. New museums can be radical • A real project: Alpine Ice Research Station & museum Design firm, R&Sie(n)

  10. Context: trend for new museums • Global trend for grand new museums • Why so many across the UK? • Cultural tourism is vital to UK: • 34 million foreign visitors a year • Visitor economy = £114b or 8.2% GDP • Culture is most often given as main reason to visit UK • London hosts Olympics in 2012

  11. What are we spending? • Heritage Lottery Fund has spent £4.4 billion in 15 years • More than half on new building work • How many in UK? Perhaps 80 new builds or extensions in 12 years, for £2.7 billion? • “I'm convinced it will come off. It's a means of developing and growing out of the recession." Prof Peter Downes, chair of new V&A project in Dundee

  12. Features ofour new museums Large, spectacular, contemporary Many by coasts or rivers Use of new technology in the visitor experience National Lottery, local government and private funding BUT: many redevelopments of heritage museums too Imperial War Museum of the North

  13. Birthing a new museum = a lifetime responsibility Expensive to run Installation challenges Fast turnaround of exhibits Bigger spaces, inefficient in energy High expectations of visitor experience Many free of charge Ron Mueck’s ‘Girl’ arriving at Brooklyn Museum of Art

  14. Tate Modern’s new building Architect: Herzog & de Meuron Hoped to complete 2012? Cost £215 million Rear of former power station by the Thames, over oil tanks Spaces for installation, live art & photography Learning central to the design

  15. Learning facilities in the extension • “Spaces for learning, study and reflection unmatched anywhere in the world • Spaces designed specifically by young people for young people • Dedicated family areas; more restaurants and cafés • Dedicated Mediatech suite for personal study • Further suites for group learning • Studios for making and learning • A Children’s Gallery presenting work and interpretative material specifically for children” http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/transformingtm/

  16. What other ways? Museum experiences can be out in the world High tech or low tech

  17. Museum of East Anglian Life Runs as a social enterprise Unemployed people train, grow vegetables, make things, sell them, help run the museum Many others involved too: 42,000 volunteer hours a year Mission: “We aim to help people, be active, learn new things, look at the world differently, make friends and give something back.”

  18. A new architecture of relationships Trainees making a box for owls

  19. Their plan to develop Abbott’s Hall £3 million project to improve facilities Restore workers’ cottages and kitchen gardens Tell stories of people who lived there Unemployed people will do the work, learn skills. And learn history

  20. Hierarchy of cultural programming TOP RANK

  21. ...can it be turned on its head?

  22. How can this change be achieved? • Could it happen here? www.flowassociates.com http://bridgetmckenzie.wordpress.com bridget.mckenzie@flowassociates.com

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