18. Letting people define for themselves what’s special about a place, and what matters about it... That’s the key. Government agencies and large bodies can’t stand this. They want to define things; they want to keep tabs... only ordinary people can make ordinary places matter Sue Clifford, Common Ground
I’ve worked in museums since 1997, which I think co-incides with what could be described as the good times for culture. It was a a time when expansion and growth were unprecedented. Our major towns and cities have a slew of new, beautifully designed and inspiring museums. These new museums and the policy of free admission have inspired increasing numbers of people to enjoy arts and their heritage. But this kind of exponential growth can’t go on forever. The current financial crisis has shown the limits of growth. A desire for growth has skewed the way people who work in culture think. By proving our contributes to the economic potential of a locality or the country as a whole, we get more money, with more money we can do more stuff for more people. This is fine to a point but I think it has created a rigid, mechanistic mindset in the practice of museum people. We spend much time trying to prove to treasury for the next CSR or our local authority next round of budget setting, that culture can contribute to objectives in a range of areas from reducing crime to improving educational attainment, to improving health and contributing to economic regeneration. Whilst this may be true, for me this approach has taken much of the joy out of our work. We may be culturally richer than ever before but are we happier. I think our efforts should be less geared to producing more cultural stuff and but should concentrate on the happiness of our people be they, visitors, contributors, staff or volunteers. We often pride ourselves in putting people at the heart of the museum – we should put the museum in the hearts of our people. This is the way to build the social capital which is the keystone to the resilient and sustainable communities of the future.
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