As chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council, Sir Ian Blatchford is accustomed to watching history unfold. His position, complemented by his role as the chief executive of the Science Museum Group, sees him well placed to comment on the future of museums once things return to a position of relative normality.
Normally home to some 85 million visitors in any given year, the Science Museum Group have been forced to close their doors in an attempt to limit the spread of the pandemic. This is by no means to suggest that members of the public have shut themselves off from culture, anything but. In fact, Sir Ian notes that the educational sections of sites he oversees have had four times more interest than prior to the pandemic.
Yet reopening museums and galleries is very much at the forefront of Sir Ian’s mind. In a comment piece for The Daily Telegraph, he notes: “The Government has trailed the possibility of museums reopening from July 4, but do not expect many of our national and regional museums to be racing towards it with undue haste.
“Our sector is not looking at the date in the Government’s conditional plan as a target.”
According to Sir Ian, there will not be one opening date for all museum, but a series of openings spread across the year to limit the impact. Openings will be tailored to each individual institution and will take into consideration both visitor safety and financial viability.
Sir Ian believes that the larger museums will be among the last to reopen, with the Tate at the head of the queue. He suggests that the earliest reopening will be some time in August.
He concludes, with a sense of hope, that we ought to: “rest assured our time to reopen will come, and we will be relying on centuries of experience of caring for our visitors to ensure our museums remain as welcoming as ever when that moment arrives.”
