East Anglians ‘insulted’ as museum name change leaves bitter taste

THINKING of East Anglia may conjure images of Cambridge University, Sutton Hoo, the Norfolk Broads or perhaps even fictional radio DJ Alan Partridge.

But for a museum dedicated to the region’s history, its name is not sufficiently “relatable” to modern visitors.

As a result, the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk, has been rebranded the Food Museum, prompting public anger with some describing it an “insult”.

Jenny Cousins, its director, said that banishing the region’s name was an attempt to appeal to a 21st-century audience with a “more relatable concept”.

She added the new incarnation has attracted higher visitor numbers. “We did a lot of in-the-street interviews with people, saying ‘what would you expect to find in the Museum of East Anglian Life, and they really struggled to come up with anything,” she added.

“Whereas when you say Food Museum, people get excited.”

Ms Cousins said that while the museum will keep its collection of over 40,000 objects, it will be more focused towards food and sustainability. She said its public consultation, which ran for four years, included focus groups, school visits and open evenings.

Simon Dukes, a trustee of the museum, said that he supported the decision, and said “all that’s happened, really, is a name change”. Yet while the museum insists that its shift in focus represents a “positive” change, many of those in East Anglia disagree. Neil Lanham, an oral historian, 84, called the name change “ludicrous”. He said the museum’s push towards relevance was “meaningless”, adding: “What on Earth is the point?”

Mr Lanham said he had no knowledge of this proposed name change until it happened.

A petition urging the public to “Save the Museum of East Anglian Life” has attracted over 1,800 signatures, from prominent academics and local residents alike.

Matthew Attwood, 41, a local collector and writer, who is leading the campaign, said “East Anglia is secondary” in the Food Museum’s vision, which incorporates sustainability and environmental concerns. “It used to be the focus,” he said.

He added: “This is about much more than a name change… East Anglia isn’t just absent from the new title, but also the vision, mission and values.

“We’ve gone from a museum rooted in a place and culture to one defined by the loosest generic theme. It’s intellectually incoherent, as the scale of academic opposition indicates, and an insult to East Anglians who hadn’t thought to question the relevance of their identity and heritage before.”

He added that East Anglia has a “very strong local regional identity”, and said that “everybody is against” the name change. Mr Attwood claimed that in a recent meeting with Ms Cousins, she was unable to provide a clear definition of East Anglia and said it was an “irrelevant” and “difficult” concept. Ms Cousins denies she used the word irrelevant.

When asked about Mr Attwood’s comments, Ms Cousins said: “I’m afraid that these recollections don’t represent my or the museum’s views.

“We don’t think East Anglia is irrelevant – it remains at the heart of the museum as do our collections. I said that our visitor research and our experience having conversations with visitors over many years indicates that people define where East Anglia is differently.”