Are you all resolved to give your voices?
Coriolanus Act II Scene iii
Set up after a fifty year campaign, London’s Theatre Museum holds one of the world’s finest collections of material on the performing arts. It is administered as a department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which for reasons of economy wanted to close it as an independent attraction and to relocate it to a few of its own galleries.
London’s Theatre Museum - Something Worth Saving
The Guardians Team
Protecting our theatre heritage
Convenors: Save London’s Theatres Campaign, Society for Theatre Research
Background
The Theatre Museum was opened in its premises in Russell Street, Covent Garden, in 1987, thirty years after the founding of the British Theatre Museum Association (BTMA). Another important contribution came from the Friends of the Museum of Performing Arts , organised by Richard Buckle, a vast collection of Diaghilev, Ballets Russes and other ballet material. Its collection was an amalgamation of the theatre collections held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, notably that of Gabrielle Enthoven, and at Leighton House, home of the BTMA. The Theatre Museum project had survived several attempts to abort it, each blocked by public outcry.
Since its opening, as present and past directors can attest, the Theatre Museum has been treated as a poor relation by the parent body, the Victoria and Albert Museum, not allowed to raise funds of its own and starved of funds from within. The one positive development over the years has been the creation of a separate site for archive and storage in Blythe House, Olympia, where researchers have access to the large amount of the Theatre Museum’s collection not on permanent display. In spite of its difficulties, the Theatre Museum has been able to expand its holdings enormously during its existence, with many items given to it on the express understanding that they would form part of a separate, independent Theatre Museum collection.
Two bids made to the Heritage Lottery Fund to upgrade its admittedly unsatisfactory Russell Street site were rejected, the second after the London board of HLF had approved it and recommended that it be passed to the national board for a larger grant than it was authorised to give.
The failure of these initiatives, together with the fact that the lease on
Covent Garden was due to run out in 2028, seem to have persuaded the Victoria
and Albert that they should attempt to reduce their financial commitments by
closing down the Russell Street site. Public response to this suggestion led
to discussions with the Royal Opera House about a joint management of Russell
Street, which subsequently collapsed. These efforts had been given some public
credibility by the publication of a ‘consultation paper’, outlining
what the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum saw as the problems relating
to the Theatre Museum together with their proposals to resolve them: either
complete closure of Russell Street or a link with the ROH.
Numerous responses were received to the ‘consultation paper’, all
rejecting closure, many listing the shortcomings of the present Theatre Museum
under its restrictive management, and most suggesting alternatives to closure.
These were acknowledged, but not published, and it is doubtful whether they
had been taken into consideration when the Victoria and Albert Museum announced,
in September 2006, that in view of the collapse of the ROH plan they would
pursue their chosen alternative and close the Russell Street site.
Present Position
The effect of this hasty, unilateral, ill-considered action is that the Russell Street site is scheduled to close for good on 7 January 2007, without public debate. A number of jobs will be lost. Even more important, the identity of the nation’s collection of theatre materials will be wiped out. No indication has been given of how a withdrawal of the Theatre Museum’s exhibits and activities to South Kensington would be budgeted, but it has been indicated that it would be at least two years before anything like the present activity of the Theatre Museum could be resumed.
Action
To counter this unilateral destruction of a resource for which it has fought over half a century, the theatre community, both individuals and representative bodies, has joined together to create a body, the Guardians of the Theatre Museum. The Guardians have short, medium and long-term aims:
Short-term
To force the Victoria and Albert Museum to withdraw its notice of closure for the Russell Street site, on the grounds that it has been inadequately debated, without the participation of Theatre Museum staff and with no visible budget to show its benefits.
Medium-term
To ask the DCMS to seek alternative and more sympathetic control of the Theatre
Museum and its collections. The Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
has indicated that they would be willing to cede the Theatre Museum’s
management to another body.
It should be acknowledged that all UK museums are in a state of crisis, and
that claims for special treatment will be looked upon with suspicion in the
present climate. However, the role of the theatre industry in creating national
wealth is undisputed, with some £50 million in VAT generated annually
from the sale of theatre tickets in the West End alone. The industry will also
be at the forefront of any cultural activity generated (and required under
statute) by the 2012 London Olympics.
Long term
To seek alternative sites for an expanded, more efficient Theatre Museum when the present Russell Street lease runs out in 2028. The Guardians should be open-minded enough to consider radical solutions, and take into account the need to protect the similarly threatened archives and collections of other branches of the performing arts. For example, the Museum of the Moving Image (the freehold of which is owned by Arts Council England) is also in need of a new home, having been closed for some years.
CLICK HERE TO BECOME A GUARDIAN
The Theatre Museum has been described – by the V & A itself – as ‘a
world-class collection.’
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