Geraldine Kendall Adams article in the Museums Journal has the headline: British Museum announces new £50m BP deal to fund masterplan.
The institution announced the BP deal as it outlined the next steps of its 10-year masterplan, which will include a new government-funded Energy Centre, the redevelopment of a third of its galleries, and the official opening of its new Archaeological Research Collection (BM_ARC) at the Thames Valley Research Park in June 2024.
The masterplan will see the launch of an international architectural competition to reimagine the museum’s galleries next spring. The competition will focus on the museum's "Western Range" – which currently houses collections such as Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome – and will involve the introduction of contemporary architecture and gallery displays, along with the restoration of the listed building.
The new archaeological research facility – the first phase of the masterplan – will house items ranging from nails from the Sutton Hoo ship burial to Peruvian fabrics and 5000-year-old antler picks. It will seek to offer a “radically different” approach to museum storage by facilitating research and study by both academics and members of the public.
The museum masterplan will include public study rooms © John McAslan + Partners
To read the full article, follow the link here.
Also in The Times, David Sanderson writes:
The museum’s board has surprised the country’s cultural community by signing a ten-year deal with BP, which has in recent years been shunned by almost all of Britain’s artistic organisations.
It has emerged that trustees took the decision in June last year at a meeting in which they agreed to “operate as a united board” despite personal disagreements. George Osborne, the chairman, withdrew after declaring a conflict of interest.
The minutes of the meeting record that “it was unanimously agreed that accepting the sponsorship was on balance in the best interests of the museum and the protection, display and use of its collection”.
Muriel Gray resigned her post at the meeting in November immediately before the trustees discussed how to make public the BP deal.
Gray, who had been a trustee for seven years, did not respond to requests for comment. The minutes record her as saying she made a personal decision to submit her resignation to the government.
Chris Garrard, codirector of the pressure group Culture Unstained, said that it was an “astonishingly out of touch and completely indefensible decision”.
He said: “It comes just days after delegates at Cop28 agreed that the world must transition away from fossil fuels. We believe this decision is illegitimate and in breach of the museum’s own climate commitments and sectorwide codes and will be seeking legal advice in order to mount a formal challenge to it.”
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