Ageist museums bite the hand that feeds, says Royal Academy chief
THE head of the Royal Academy of Arts has accused British museums of being ageist in their relentless pursuit of young audiences.
Charles Saumarez Smith said the focus on a younger demographic was symptomatic of a view in the arts that age was a bad thing – and added that he had experienced this very prejudice.
The 64-year-old chief executive said his own team were keen to keep him out of a recent documentary about life at the Academy, preferring instead to push forward the comparatively youthful artistic director, Tim Marlow. It was a symptom, Mr Saumarez Smith said, of arts institutions trying to appeal to a young audience when most of their visitors are older. “This is, I think, a very interesting and key issue which, given my age, I take rather seriously,” he said.
“It was evident to me through the filming that my communications team were anxious to have as much as possible of Tim, who is younger, more handsome and more televisual, and as little as possible of me.
“I only crept in by accident, giving this guided tour at the beginning, and when the film was shown, my director of communications thought, ‘Hell, this shows an old man as chief executive.’”
While poking fun at himself, Mr Saumarez Smith had a serious point to make. Speaking at the Hay Festival, he said: “It is tricky, this issue. We get money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to get new audiences. But if you look at the demographic of the Friends [members who pay an annual subscription] it tends to be older people who have the time and the inclination to come.
“If I am honest, institutions are in danger of what I think occasionally and notice is an element of age discrimination, in the sense that ‘younger people – good’, ‘older people – not so good’. And being in the latter category myself, I am rather resistant to that.”
The documentary, The Private Life of the Royal Academy, was broadcast earlier this month on BBC Two.
Mr Saumarez Smith said institutions must be careful not to neglect their older members.
He said of Olwyn Bowey, 82, the longest-serving Royal Academician: “She stands for that older generation. There is always that feeling, which I understand and have some sympathy for, that somehow the younger generation are getting all the publicity and everything is about Grayson Perry.”
The chief executive joked that the BBC film could have been a disaster because “it is almost impossible to film the governing body of a British institution in such a way that the British institution doesn’t come off badly”.
But he said it appeared to have paid off, giving viewers a look behind “the traditional pomp”.
Mr Saumarez Smith said: “I was not sure what the impact would be, but what I found is that it has helped a lot of people who did not know or understand what the Academy is.”