NEWS
Jonathan Knott
Freelance Journalist
United Kingdom
Writing for the Guardian, Telegraph, and others. Email: knottjp [at] gmail.com
United Kingdom
Writing for the Guardian, Telegraph, and others. Email: knottjp [at] gmail.com
NEWS
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) planned to withdraw £9.5m of funding for a railway museum project in Leicester a month before the lead partner was told on 13 December, according to documents obtained by Museums Journal under a freedom of information request.
A trustee of the Brontë Society has had her access to the organisation's museum restricted after her repeated requests for information about the whereabouts of objects in the collection were judged to constitute the harassment of a staff member.
Many museums in the UK are facing business rate hikes in April, with some large institutions set for six-figure increases.
Issues include exceptions for research and archiving, and limiting fines for public bodies
Venue in 5-star hotel complex could cost £10.4m
Model would give institutions more operational freedom
FEATURES
The Mendoza Review of the English museum sector has been criticised for downplaying the challenges faced by local authority-funded museums, and glossing over important concerns such as business rates
The Museums Association’s second annual survey reveals rising visitor numbers and a greater focus on often-marginalised groups. But it’s against a backdrop of continued funding cuts, a shrinking workforce and the uncertainty of Brexit
As the Museums Association unveils its new salary guidelines, following research revealing that jobs in museums pay up to 12% less than those in other industries, Jonathan Knott hears about the impact that low pay has on those working in the sector
Museums with natural history collections have been struggling to deal with the loss of curators with specialist scientific knowledge combined with the wider funding problems facing the sector. But life finds a way: by evolving strategies to cope with changing conditions, museums are forming partnerships with other organisations in order to engage the public
Jonathan Knott delves into the world of stored collections to find out how museums are using them to engage audiences
How the cabinet office's 'Nudge Unit' has grown to influence policy and strategy across government - and beyond.
Travel
The museum was finally opened in 1991 by the Slovak Ministry of Culture, and today displays 160 Warhol originals - the only larger collection is at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The artist has seeped so comprehensively into modern consciousness that it feels slightly unreal to view his actual work.
In central Riga, people are laying flowers beneath the Freedom Monument. It's a green statue of a woman holding three gold stars on top of a 42-metre stone pillar at the end of a broad, busy street. One woman explains to me that it's the 65th anniversary of the day in 1949 when 42,000 Latvians were deported to Siberia by the Soviet government.
I couldn't see them, but there were almost 200 people joining me in this venture, now in its 12th year. Kitted out in yellow or green caps, we were swimming between the islands which, though technically one country, proudly maintain distinct identities.