Museums and heritage

The National Trust (NT) has reported spending a record £179m on conserving its historic buildings and collections last year.

In a report published before the NT’s annual general meeting in November, the organisation detailed some of the rising costs it has had to contend with over the past year, including the doubling of its energy bill to £11m. 

Despite the challenging economic landscape in 2022-23, the NT’s workforce increased in contrast to 2020-21, when the closure of its buildings during the pandemic led to the loss of 1,700 jobs.

Last year, the NT funded 13,245 hours of work on delicate historic collections and spent £25.6m on “significant acquisitions”.

The organisation also saw a boost in visitors at pay-for-entry venues. At the same time, membership rose slightly from 5.71m in 2021-22 to 5.73m in 2022-23, with the cost of individual membership increasing by 16.5% to £84 a year.

As well as record spending, the NT received record amounts in bequeathed legacies last year, topping £70m.

Hilary McGrady, the NT’s Director General, said: “The record funds we dedicated in the last financial year reflects the NT’s enduring commitment to the beautiful historic places in its care and the nation’s enthusiasm for this.

“We were able to make this significant investment during a particularly difficult economic environment, with rising costs and continued recovery from the pandemic, thanks to the millions of people who supported our cause.”

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has awarded £250k for research into how blind people experience art in museums and the ways it can be enhanced.

A collaboration between Dr Ken Wilder and Dr Aaron McPeake (University of the Arts London), Dr Clare O’Dowd from the Henry Moore Institute and the disability-led arts organisation Shape Arts, the project is the first to be awarded financing from AHRC’s exhibition fund.

The three-year study will feature a research season and public engagement events culminating in a 2025 exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, predominantly featuring works by blind or partially-blind artists and directed by a blind curator.

Working with Shape Arts, the project will also generate the first international database of blind and partially-blind sculptural artists.

Wilder said the project would investigate the role that “touch, sound, smell and proprioception – the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body – play in engaging with sculpture”.

Professor Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair, said: “As audiences and venues change, and as we seek to be more inclusive and bring our culture to everyone, the nature of how we stage and curate exhibitions needs to evolve. 

“This project will unlock fresh ways for different and often overlooked audiences to experience our historical and cultural heritage, ensuring its value can be fully appreciated by many more people, but they will also inform all of our exhibition making.”

A museum in Hampshire has submitted plans to build homes on its site in order to generate income to secure its future.

Bursledon Brickworks Museum, in Swanwick, wants permission for 12 homes to be built on its site which is home to historically significant industrial buildings including a brickmaking kiln, processing sheds, specialised enclosures, engine and machinery houses, along with a café and a museum, The Portsmouth News reports.

"Due to the listed nature of the Brickwork Museum, these buildings require essential repairs and restoration works to safeguard their future as heritage assets," an application put forward by the museum states.

"The Brickwork Museum will require substantial funding to carry these repairs and restoration works.

"The money required will come from a variety of sources but these alone cannot raise the required funds to carry out the works. 

"Therefore, the purpose of developing the land for residential dwellings is to enable the land to be sold to a developer in order to raise significant funds that can enable the works to the listed buildings to take place."

Salford City Council has set aside a total of £475,000 for arts, culture, and heritage with money from the UK government's Shared Prosperity Fund.

Under the scheme voluntary and community organisations will be able to bid for money for projects celebrating the city’s arts, culture and heritage.

The funds are being managed by Salford CVS and applications for grants of up to £10,000 are open until noon on Monday 9 October.

Salford City Council secured the funding after submitting proposals to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which manages the fund in the city-region.

Councillor David Molyneux, Greater Manchester’s lead for Resources and Investment and leader of Wigan Council said: “Putting local authorities at the forefront of the funding allows those working at the heart of communities to engage with local people and ensure funds can be spent in a way to deliver maximum benefit."

Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, said: “We’re looking forward to bringing our proposals to life for the benefit of local people and visitors to our vibrant city.”

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens in Northumberland has reopened to the public after a major two-year conservation and revival project carried out by English Heritage.

Partially funded by a £3.4m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as well as support from Garfield Weston Foundation and the Foyle Foundation, the project included work to conserve the venue’s historic hall, castle and coach house and a rejuvenation of the property’s 30-acre gardens.

“The Belsay that visitors see today comprises three distinct but related elements: a medieval castle, a Greek-Revival country house, which superseded it as a family residence at the beginning of the 19th century, and a beautiful garden linking the two buildings,” said Mark Douglas, English Heritage’s Properties Curator.

The property, designed by Sir Charles Monk, is one of the earliest Greek Revival houses in Britain.

The restoration addressed problems including a leaking roof and gutters that had been causing damp issues for over two hundred years and the loss of much of the original planting material in the venue’s Grade I-listed gardens.

The original roof has now been replaced and the castle’s medieval stonework repaired. The gardens have been restored by landscape designer and gardener Dan Pearson, who planned a new scheme that maintained its historic character.

Pearson and his team planted more than 80,000 new plants, with 35,000 alone in the hall’s woodland area. The project also restored previously lost historic views on Crag Wood’s scenic walk.

Pearson’s “plantsmanship and painterly eye have helped to bring out the individual character of the extensive garden areas,” said John Watkins, English Heritage’s Head of Gardens and Landscapes.

The upgraded site includes a new projected animation and soundscape centring on the story of The Wildman, a medieval mythical figure which features on the coat of arms of the Middleton family, who owned Belsay for over 700 years.

It also includes new family-friendly spaces, a children’s woodland play-and-learn area with an outdoor classroom and a café with renewable energy and rainwater harvesting located in the historic coach house.

The National Gallery in London had to be evacuated and closed to the public on Tuesday (22 September) due to an incident involving a man who climbed onto its roof.

As of Wednesday (23 September) morning, the incident was ongoing with a heavy police presence visible at the gallery.

Police described the man as "distressed". Social media footage showed him sitting and standing on the area above the Sainsbury Wing of the gallery.

On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the National Gallery shared an update stating: "The incident continued throughout the night and part of following morning, with Trafalgar Square and the gallery remaining closed.

"At around 11.25am a man was detained under the mental health act and taken to hospital. The gallery opened to visitors at around 12pm"

Summer on the Square, an event scheduled to take place in Trafalgar Square across this week, reopened again on Wedenesday afternoon.

An investigation is now underway into how the man accessed the gallery roof.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) has announced the launch of a three year project exploring the role of women in creating and maintaining the playwright’s legacy over the centuries.

“Prompted by the 400th anniversary of the death of Anne Shakespeare (nee Hathaway) earlier in August, we are embarking on an ambitious, multi-year project that will explore the sometimes hidden, often ignored, erased or forgotten stories of the many women who have influenced, as well as secured Shakespeare’s legacy,” said Professor Charlotte Scott, the trust’s Director of Knowledge and Engagement.

The SBT has committed to ensuring all the activity will be devised and led by women and female-identifying people. 

The project will focus on the lived experiences of the women in Shakespeare’s life, including his mother Mary, his sister Joan, his daughters Susannah and Judith and the extended networks of friends, neighbours and country women who maintained those relations.

The trust, which is responsible for maintaining the family homes, documents and artefacts relating to Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon, will share stories and events for every family and an exhibition at Shakespeare’s New Place in Spring 2024. 

In 2025, the focus of the project will be the female gaze and the female characters who have contributed to Shakespeare’s place in theatrical history, including “lovers and Queens, witches, mothers, murderers, politicians and powerhouses”. 

The final year will centre on the women who made and continue to make Shakespeare famous, from actresses to artists, writers, readers and creatives who have brought his characters to life.

“We are approaching Shakespeare not as a single genius, but as the figurehead of a community and network of people who enabled and secured his place in the canon of western literature,” Scott said.

“He wrote at a time when society was highly patriarchal and socially stratified. However, his own life and much of his career was one which was ruled by women, from the monarch to his homelife.”