Learning

Punch Magazine, 1891

The Museum The past: the museum primarily a place of aesthetic contemplation and collection-centred expertise The present: the museum as communicator and partner to various audience constituencies cultural climate which questions the legitimacy of the museum’s authority

UK Historical Context Mid-nineteenth century social history context of philanthropy and self-improvement 1845 Museums Act - public money given to national museums, enabling local authorities to levy rates to build new museums and charge admission. Museums expected to play a significant role in the life of the nation. Education and curating were seen as part of the same task.

Education and the Curator 1870 Education Act – raised profile of museum education and raised key questions about education and care of the collections The South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum and the Natural History Museum had explicit educational aims - the ‘object’ lesson, i.e. artefact-based learning. Who should be delivering these lessons? Several national museums employed educators specifically for this purpose – first lecturer at Tate appointed in 1914 Curators free to devote their time wholly and autonomously, to care of and developing scholarship about the collection.

Curators increasingly withdrew from a direct relationship with the visiting public, to the field of curating exhibitions and maintaining the collection. Strong arguments were put forward for the value of collections per se, and museums were perceived as centres of research about their respective collections

DCMS May 2000, the DCMS policy document ‘Centres for Social Change; Museums, Galleries and Archives for All’ set an access standard for the cultural sector Museums should provide access for many not just for the enlightened few: museums should be about collections, but for people.

‘Design for the Grand Galerie in the Louvre’ (detail), 1796, Hubert Robert

Andrea Fraser

Tate Learning