Museums deconstructed by degrees
If the head of a national museum is a left-wing politician – appointed under a supposedly right-wing Government – then you know progressive poisoning affects both institutions and political parties.
Colchester and Ipswich Museums held a video conference event on the subject of decolonisation and democratisation. The organisers invited two activist historians to give talks. The organisers revealed their view by staging the event, as well as in their choice of speakers. Heritage organisations are run by managerial leftist elites, who dislike compromised artefacts and resent the populations they serve.
As part of the event, a video talk was given by Tristram Hunt, Director of The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) on the September 29th. He spoke positively about adapting museum presentations to target “new communities”. When asked about the possibility of laws allowing mass deaccessioning of artefacts, he stepped carefully and pointed out that this would require an Act of Parliament. He also avoided fully endorsing a question that advocated making audiences uncomfortable – a reframing of the “no white comfort” slogan of BLM – calling it “a very great question”, saying: “I get the point and I think that intellectual challenge and feeling uncomfortable about some of these histories is part of what we should do but I think at the same time don’t lose sight of the fact that we’ve trusted institutions to make that happen.” He warned against too obviously provoking audiences, which would drive away visitors.
Hunt justified political steerage of museums, using a sleight of hand. He showed a visual of a news article about Michael Gove during the Brexit campaign. The headline of the visual said “Britain has had enough of experts, says Gove”. Besides this was a strip of T-shirts, each with the slogan “Museums are not neutral”. Hunt said:
“One of the interesting questions that many of you are wrestling with as museum professionals is this idea of museums not being neutral. Just as with the Bernal [Collection] case, every decision we make about interpretation is (in many senses) a political act, that we are foregrounding one interpretation, underplaying another, and there is this strong sense that when we think about museums, we have to understand every component of it lacks (as it were) a kind of authoritative voice because all of those are predicated upon certain political or cultural assumptions. At the same time (as it were), if that’s from the cultural left, from the cultural right is this notion of ‘we’ve all had enough of experts’, that we shouldn’t believe in expertise, that expertise is overrated. So, we’ve got a sense on both sides – to my mind – of undermining the role of cultural institutions as purveyors and interpreters of the past, invalidating a sense of understanding and neutrality, on one hand, saying we’ve had enough of experts – be they curators or exhibition designers – on the other.” (This can be listened to from 38’ 10’’ onwards in the video linked earlier).
So, Hunt states that undermining the attempt to be neutral and impartial is actually responding equally to both sides of political spectrum. He conflates (the actual) Post-Modernist relativism and anti-traditionalism of the left with a caricature of the right. When you ask a conservative or reactionary what his central principles are regarding culture, his first responses would not be “we’ve had enough of experts”. A conservative’s advice would be to maintain tradition, faithfully transmit the canon and cultivate discriminating connoisseurial expertise. Turning the populist rhetoric of Gove (acting in the cross-party Leave campaign) regarding a national referendum on an issue with very broad political and social implications into a conservative attitude on cultural policy is a grotesque distortion.
Well, once a politician, always a politician. Tristram Hunt was a Labour MP before he became head of the V&A in February 2017.
The custodians of our physical culture despise it. They use their power to demean historical figures to gain emotional gratification and tactical advantage. They are rarely held to account – least of all by a Conservative Government, which fully endorses progressive stances. The rot in cultural institutions has reached the very top. If the head of a national museum is a left-wing politician – appointed under a supposedly right-wing Government – then you know progressive poisoning affects both institutions and political parties.
