The War on Museums – by Museum Staff

As the Museums Association gathers,Alexander Adams explains how its members subvert every aspect of museums in the UK.

Last week in Scotland, the annual conference of the Museums Association (the MA) brought together top staff of the UK’s most important museums. On the agenda was “Museums for Climate Justice”, “Creating an anti-racist country – practical lessons from Welsh museums” and “Collaborating for change: disrupting narratives of racist science.”

Held between 3 and 5 November 2022, at Edinburgh International Conference Centre, the slogan of the conference was “Make Change Happen.” The MA could not be clearer that it is a social-justice-activist organisation, which views museums as means for redressing historical imbalances.  

From professionalism to praxis

When public museums were first established in the last years of the eighteenth century, they were seen as repositories of knowledge. The museum’s materials were considered significant in their field, studied by experts, cared for by conservationists and presented to the public in an informative way. The MA was committed to these principles when it was set up (in 1889) to provide technical and ethical guidance to the staff of museums. If you were to visit the MA’s website today,  you will find articles  on “anti-racism” and “climate justice”; there is also an opinion piece on the cost-of-living crisis. 

As critical race theory, identity politics and other ideas derived from Critical Theory (the Frankfurt School) teach, there is no point in identifying social injustice without opposing it. This is called praxis. Museum science, as taught by universities, has become dominated by Michel Foucault’s ideas on the “episteme”. The website dedicated to Foucault’s philosophy defines the episteme:. 

“This term, which Foucault introduces in his book The Order of Things, refers to the orderly ‘unconscious’ structures underlying the production of scientific knowledge in a particular time and place.” 

Newly graduated museum staff believe it is their duty to undermine what we assume we know about history through their museum praxis. When you think of elitism in museums, you might have assumed it was a case of isolated savants immersed in historical research, disdaining the public. Actually, museum elitism is generated by museum-directors-as-venue-managers intent on engineering society, using Foucault’s theories as justification. 

Such a subversive outlook could not have been clearer than at last week’s conference. 

“Embedding anti-racism”

One session covered“Black queer lives,” which then sought to challenge ideas of nationhood “by reshaping our perceptions of who belongs and who doesn’t”. This session was supported by Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage and the National Trust, demonstrating just how widespread social-justice praxis has become inside publicly funded heritage organisations.  

The MA’s website features a section on “anti-racism,” with photographs of BLM campaigners giving the black-power salute and a statement which declares “embedding anti-racism in our professional development and funding programmes as well as developing inclusive recruitment guidance for the sector.” The MA also runs “anti-racism” training for all its staff. 

There was also a panel which advocated for restitution of museum artefacts from the era of colonialism. The MA has long encouraged museums to deaccession (to remove from their permanent collections) objects seen as problematic. This not only includes items ‘looted’ but also gifts, traded items and items funded by profits from slavery. The MA has declared its intention to “provide clear, up-to-date advice that enables all museums to confidently and ethically dispose of items from their collections while maintaining public trust.” 

One session asked “Who’s afraid of Decolonisation?” The answer, of course,  is the indigenous population of Great Britain, whose ancestors are routinely portrayed in new historical narrative in the mass media and museums as slavery-supporting colonisers. Somewhat ironically, this ”decolonisation” looks very much like the colonisation of museum spaces and academic research by progressive activists bearing a grudge against the British.   

“Curator of Discomfort”

The conference held a workshop entitled “Dismantling white supremacy in museums”, led by Zandra Yeaman, Curator of Discomfort, Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Dr Yeaman explained her role as “Exploring white supremacy as an economic and cultural system in which white western ideals control the power of the text, the material resources and ideas of cultural superiority.” 

Discomfort is the academic practice that challenges all fixed social conventions and advances progressive change by destabilising the worldviews of individuals and institutions. Dr Yeaman states that such activity comes from the idea of institutional racism, found in the 1999 MacPherson Report into policing and which was subsequently endorsed by the Blair New Labour government. 

At the conference there was not one session solely regarding displays or arrangement of artefacts, with the only practical session being a talk about methods of pest control within museums. Politics and professional networking dominated the conference.

Funded by whom?

The cost of the Edinburgh conference would have come mainly by publicly-funded museums paying for staff to attend. Where does the MA get its funding? Most of it comes from members–both individuals and organisations. The MA is empowered to administer grants from charities. This allows the MA to extend influence directly into institutions by funding projects aimed at turning museums into social-activist hubs. 

Like most  organisations in the public-arts network of NGOs, foundations, funds and consultants, the MA is a Registered Charity. According to the regulations of charities, political campaigning outside of the core purpose of the organisation is forbidden. Unfortunately, due to a wide range of museum activities, the MA can justify its activism as advice to history museums on presenting contentious subjects. The Charities Commission of England has avoided disciplining arts organisations over blatant infractions (as documented in my book Artivism). It appears the MA has nothing to fear from its regulator. 

The Department of Culture and the Arts Council is staffed by civil servants trained in diversity-inclusion-equality ideology, so little pressure will be brought to bear on the MA from that quarter. (As explained by me here.) With NGOs such as National Heritage Scotland promoting conference images on its Twitter account, we can see support for grievance curating goes right to the top of public bodies.   

Last week proves that the MA is a perfect barometer for the calculated destruction of public institutions by people entrusted with protecting them. With the complicity of civil servants and no means of redress, the situation in our museums can only get worse in the future.

Alexander Adams is a British artist, critic and art historian. His book Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History is published by Imprint Academic.