First Session: Setting the agenda
Who sets the agenda for the way museums and galleries are perceived by the media?

Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and now Director of the Clore Cultural Leadership Foundation, opened the debate by focusing on the public. Museums and galleries in his view now do an excellent job in interpreting their collections once visitors are inside the door. They could do more in Reaching the Public outside. He used some the opening of Tate Modern as a shining example of an institution, which had achieved both. Engaging with the public was the key success. The public must feel that the museum is theirs, part of the community.

Siobhan Kenny, Director of Communications at DCMS, started her presentation by identifying “spin” some putting the best gloss on a story something which every organisation tried to do. The Hutton enquiry had brought government in from of the public and the Phillis, government review, would report later in the year on government communications. As a result of the growth of spin, the media had become more and more cynical. The competitiveness of journalists to get their story on the front page also meant that distortion was common. Increasingly government was looking at ways of communicating directly with the public and looked to achieve credibility through other means, for example third party endorsement. In its support for the cultural sector, the problem was the number of voices, often drowning each other out. However, there is no doubt that the cultural sector is moving up the government’s agenda.

Joanna Mackle, Head of Communications at the British Museum, was the last speaker in this session. She had recently joined the Museum at a difficult time when the Museum seemed to have lost sight of its main purpose. She had come from the commercial sector (publishing) very competitive, with a cultural of taking risk accepted. The public sector is accountable and scrutinised, making risk and failure impossible. The Museum had been able to take the initiative in the Baghdad Museum crisis, gaining a lot of prestige and losing its lofty and remote image. Similarly the 250th anniversary had taken a simple idea of inviting story tellers and writers to the Museum to bring it to life. The British Museum had taken on its role as an agent for cultural debate.

Penny Egan, Director of the RSA, and Chair of the Morning, invited questions:

Kate Owen, Senior Press Officer, Heritage Lottery Fund asked about misrepresentations in the media. Siobhan Kenny said: If you complain too often you devalue a serious complaint, so you need to choose carefully how and who you complain to. If it is serious, I would telephone the editors office and demand a right of reply. Chris Smith agreed: Don’t become a whinger but if you do complain make sure you’re on strong grounds.

Isabell Smyth, Communications Officer, Heritage Council of Ireland asked about conflicts with your department department/funders.

Joanna Mackle suggested that you should stay neutral as far as possible. Chris Smith pointed out that tere will always be times when government funded organisations take a contrary view from their funders, this was a fact of life.

Peter Armstrong, Chief Executive, Galleries of Justice asked whether museums should have a national campaign about what museums are about. Chris Smith highlighted Museums and Galleries Month, which aims to do just that. There needs to be more work to brand the value of museums in the public mind and this role can also be achieved by government and the secretary of state. It can also be done by individuals in museums and galleries, Neil Macgregor for example on the treasures in Iraq. Ylva French, Director, The Campaign for Museums added that the Campaign for Museums set up by Loyd Grossman had done some of this by puttingt Museums and Galleries Month on the map nationally but with a very limited budget. Next year we aim to work much more closely with the big venues who can help the smaller museums and galleries to achieve a higher profile for what they do.

Janet Vitmayer, Chief Executive, The Horniman Museum commented on the importance of the development of regional hubs coming and the opportunity for them to work with the nationals to raise the profile of museums and galleries as a whole.

Roberta Doyle, Director of Public Affairs, National Galleries of Scotland raised the difficulties for regional and national organisations in dealing with the fragementation of the media particularly in Scotland where UK national newspapers had very low readership figures.

Siobhan Kenny stressed three key things. One to maintain links between yourselves and your national media. Two to remember that everything is moving towards new media where the traditional barriers don’t apply and thirdly think if different ways of communicating with people. Chris Smith added that Scottish media is very compartmentalised and regional organisations need to pay attention to their media. Overall branding is a problem and a UK issue. How do you get a UK story covered by national and regional press - this one has not been cracked yet.

Sue Runyard, Consultant asked about the huge competition for media attention. What is the museum’s key asset when it talks to the media.

Siobhan Kenny said that you must understand what you’ve got and linking the past with the present to make it relevant. Joanna Mackle agreed, understanding your special purpose should feed into all your communications with the media and targeting properly. Chris Smith, made the point that your treasures are the things that make your museum special. In conclusion Penny Egan added: Be relevant.

Second Session: The New Media
The future is digital. Is the growth of broadcasting and new media providing new opportunities for the cultural sector?

Tim Burt, Media Editor, of the Financial Times, used some telling statistics to illustrate the gradual decline of the printed media, and the rapid growth of broadcasting and online media. Currently PC penetration lags behind the use of TVs and mobile phones but by 2008, almost 60 per cent of all households in the US, western Europe and developed Asian economies will have PCs, more than half with internet connection. He also showed the very small proportion of broadcasting budgets spent on culture overall, with BBC very much in the lead. In global terms, the BBC is a small player and any breaking up of the BBC would make it a very much weaker organization in a global market dominated by Microsoft and Sony.

Paul Gerhardt, Director of Learning with the BBC, spoke about the importance of trust for the BBC, plans for the 60th anniversary of the Second World War and a two year programme of activities, and the introduction of the BBC’s Creative Archives – an opportunity for the public to get involved in the BBC. He emphasized that the BBC was not just a broadcaster but a cultural institution in its own right, with its own archives and collections. He concluded with a quote from Greg Dyke, Director General of the BBC, at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

“..I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; and about inclusivity, not exclusion.”

Jonathan Drori, Director of Culture Online, introduced the idea of the cigar shop – how many women had visited one and felt comfortable. In the same way, we could not expect the majority of the public did not feel comfortable in cultural institutions. This was failure which Culture Online had been set up to overcome by inviting bids from large and small organisations both publicly and privately funded. Projects need to demonstrate a response from the audience, some added value.

Penny Egan chaired the question and answer session:

Peter Wienand, Partner, Farrer and Co Solicitors raised the difficulties of small to medium cultural organisation in creating a relationship with a media partner without losing out. The reason that there are not many partnerships between media organisations and cultural sector is a lack of trust and a lack of resources. Paul Gerhadt suggested that the Museum sector needs to do some hard thinking about relationships with the media or the institutions and the public will suffer. The museum sector has quite a way to go before it is prepared for dealing with the media. How many museums have a new media strategy?

Peter Walton, Co-ordinator for Volunteering, British Association for Friends of Museums said that BBC is arrogant in creating a cultural organisation that competes with organisations already existing, particularly referring to the WW2 archive of peoples war time experiences to go online for 60th anniversary.

Paul Gerhadt said that the BBC is not competing with museums because its collecting WW2 experiences. Programmes are all about experiences and stories and using new media is the appropriate next step. Jonathan Drori,Director Culture Online added that there is a blurring of what museums and media organisations do and it is a real problem. It has to be said that interactive media does cannibalise museum and libraries archives and the internet does this too but the experience of visiting, the the Royal Air Force Museum for example is not the same as going online. The internet will change what museums do but for the better.

Third Session: Blockbusters – do they deliver?
Are blockbusters the answer to getting popular media coverage and new audiences?

Julian Spalding, Author and Consultant, was the first speaker and as a former curator he made the point that exhibitions are at the heart of museums whether they are permanent displays or blockbusters. They require research and development. You must know whom they are for. Exhibitions should come out of the collection and have a natural synergy with the collection, such as the planned Darwin Anniversary exhibition at the Natural History Museum. The British Museum should have had a major exhibition hall. In the future there will be fewer art blockbusters, simply because of the cost of insurance and the reluctance for galleries to let important pieces travel. The exhibition should tell a story through the object so that you leave deeply moved and with a deeper understanding. Labels are generally an obstacle, sound guides are better. The fit must be right.

Jane Morris, Editor of Museums Journal highlighted the pressure on arts pages in national newspapers – all editors came from the news not features. The choice will always be for something sensational such as Damien Hirst. At the same time, museums had a pecking order among the papers providing pictures and exclusive features according to that order. Museums with blockbusters aimed to create a media snowball…. Some shows work, such as Art Déco at the V & A, and others don’t, such as German Art at the National Gallery.

Blockbusters bring in new visitors. New funding agreements have committed national museums to bring in eight per cent increase in CDE visitors. Some shows may do this; but will they come back? Some shows also bring in new Friends, but do they renew? Many exhibitions are over-crowded, introductory panels in the wrong place, the audio guide highlighting a few pictures in front of which everyone congregates.

Clare Gough of the National Gallery referred to major successes at the gallery such as Titian. The best coverage was TV. Six per cent of the audience was new to the National Gallery (UK only) for this exhibition. 10 per cent had not visited in the last two years. Blockbusters are a great opportunity but it cannot be repeated all the time. The National Gallery plans to make more use of its location attracting people into the foyer for the Bill Viola show with a bar and music, free talks on Wed evenings. The challenge is to create the blockbuster effect of our the permanent collection, using famous paintings which people recognise but don’t necessarily know are in the gallery – coming face to face with “celebrities”.

The discussion was chaired by Sue Runyard, Consultant.

Sandie Dawe, Director of Communications, VisitBritain commented on the importance of blockbuster exhibitions on getting overseas visitors to a city. While Corrine Estrade, Agenda Paris, said that British Museums or Galleries seemed arrogant and predatory to the overseas media.

Clare Gough said that the National Gallery had increased the number of late night openings for the the Titian exhibition, introduced a special film season about Venice and created and database of all the new visitors. Julian Spalding added that the coordinattion between venues is key. He didn’t think this was always happening.

Jo Cooper, PR Manager, National Museums Liverpool raised the issue of the balance between getting regional press coverage which produced visitors and getting national coverage, which was difficult and expensive, which raised profile.

Jane Morris suggested that national editors won’t pay for press to visit the regions and they’re all very London centric so I would say do what works and concentrate on your regional and local media.

Peter Armstrong, Chief Executive, Galleries of Justice commented that regional museums are not in the same game as the nationals. A blockbuster can only increase visitors by maybe 2,000 in Nottingham; whereas a popular character such as Bruce Reynolds - the mastermind behind the Great Train Robbery attracted thousands and they were all first time visitors.

Stephen Bromberg, Communications Director, The Science Museum mentioned the new Lord of the Rings exhibition at the Science Museum, a potential blockbuster.

Julian Spalding suggested that museums should use the blockbuster to set the agenda. Why does the Science Museum focus on Lord of the Rings – of course you can make links to your collection, everything has a scientific dimension. It’s your museum, you can do whatever you like but the Science Museum should set the agenda and do what you think is important.

Fourth Session – What about the Big Prize?
Is the big prize the answer to media coverage for the sector? Can the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries become another Booker?

Bamber Gascoigne outlined the background to the Gulbenkian Prize and the rules laid down for the first judging panel – to look not just for excellence but also for innovation. It was a very rewarding experience and he would recommend it to anyone. It required a lot of commitment and energy. But the excitement generated by the people they met at the shortlisted venues was great. He mentioned the Discovery at Dundee, Rotherham’s Community project, the Galleries of Justice of Nottingham (the winners) and the Darwin Centre.

What made other prizes successful? The Turner Prize is a confrontation – head to head with individual artists. “It winds you up”, said one guest at the Turner Prize giving. The Booker Prize is also about individuals. This could apply to the Gulbenkian at the shortlisted stage, each museum could nominate two or three individuals including a character to take provide the individual touch for that museum.

Liz Sich, Director of Colman Getty, pointed out that the Gulbenkian Prize was now the most valuable arts prize. However, it had taken the Booker many years until1981 to get on to BBC2. It was now a brand in its own right which gave something back to the BBC. It transforms the shortlisted books not just through bookshop promotion but other activities such as reading groups, websites and debates. This year judges have made video diaries. Tensions and squabbles add to the coverage. A mature prize such as the Booker can take controversy – not so easy for a new prize. There is cynicism about celebrities – they must pull their weight.

Peter Armstrong, Director of the Galleries of Justice, and winner of the Gulbenkian Prize in 2003, spoke about the educational centre at the museum which as at the very essence of the award. Winning the prize had opened the doors to sessions at the MA conference and a visit to Estelle Morris’s office, as well as new funding opportunities. It would have been better to have been able to say to punters and to the local press that they were the “Best Museum in Britain” that would have brought in the visitors. But the Gulbenkian had provided credibility which meant funding.

Sue Runyard invited questions:

Kate Knowles, Head of Developement, Dulwich Picture Gallery asked whether the Gulbenkain judges were paid and how many museums they visited.

Bamber Gascoigne answered that they were not paid (except expenses); two judges each visited each of the 12 shortlisted museums and the four finalists are visited by all the judges.

Clare Pardy, Developement Director, AXA Art Insurance Ltd asked about whether consideration was given to the different level of resources between contestants for the prize?

Bamber Gascoigne said that if the judges had considered two museums which were equally good against the criteria they would have gone for the finalist with less resources.

Alison Cole, Director of Communications, National Art Fund asked Peter Armstrong why the prize didn’t make the Galleries of Justice sexy to local press or punters?

Peter Armstrong suggested that if the prize had said you are the best museum in the country, it would have been different but nobody could understand Gulbenkian let alone pronounce it. Add to that the fact that the award took place in London at 7pm and you can see why our local media felt excluded. Also we were already very familiar to our local press. They knew what we could do and how well we did it, so it was less of a story for them. However, what we have gained is the credibility of the sector and potential funders.

Ylva French, Conference Director, also a Trustee of the Museum Prize Trust, said that a small group led by Viscountess Cobham and Simon Thurley then at the Museum of London, had met for nearly three years before finding the Gulbenkian as sponsors. The Prize was now secure for the next five years. She added that it might not have achieved the coverage of a Booker in its first year, but the fact that it had already received credibility inside and outside the sector was a great a achievement in its first year.

She thanked all the participants and speakers – for her summary see top

24 September 2003 Media Matters Report – at The British Museum