Garry's Blog

  Sir John Soane's Museum I lived in London for a year and a half in ages past and while all sorts of cultural and other institutions made up our schedule of weekend visits, Sir John Soane's Museum was not on the list - one I had never heard of. My ignorance was corrected from somewhere - almost certainly one source was reading about Belzoni and his removal of Pharoah Seti I's sarcophagus from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings and its arrival in the museum. Probably also through Country Life , I became aware of the nature of the museum and the presence there of two series of paintings by William Hogarth, A Rakes Progress and An Election , both often reproduced in books on British art.  The Museum A work visit in the 90's took me London and a spare day to the district - my mother collected Halcyon Days enameled boxes so I visited their outlet shop to buy her one before going on to the nearby Museu m -  13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP.  The Halcyon Days sh...

  For Museums. I love museums – there that is out. I have been associated with them all my life – as a donor to at least five, associated with their research with three, published in their Records and as a Board Member for one. I love that they use physical objects to tell a story. They can have art galleries and libraries and archives attached – they are often a good fit - but none are necessary. It is physical objects that are their heart. Their essential nature lies around those objects. They need a building to protect them – from decay, theft – and that building itself has to be protected, from fire, decay, earthquake – a suitable place for guarding taonga – treasures. The collections need to be catalogued, by someone who knows enough to adequately describe them and they need to be available for experts to study and, within reason, to anyone else who develops an interest in them. A Museum needs its public interface, through displays that engage its public. It does not...