Paying for the best comes with a cost

The pursuit of blockbusters can skew the spirit of an institution

THE V&A was rightly proud to report the success of its most recent major exhibition. When it closed in London, on September 1, ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ had attracted an astonishing 594,994 visitors, more than have attended any public exhibition in the museum’s history. Athena rejoices at the public engagement with culture that this illustrates. She remains ambivalent, however, about the practical motive forces behind blockbuster shows of this kind.

Public-funding cuts are now biting deep into the budgets of national museums and, although it’s possible to raise impressive sums through private philanthropy, the shortfall remains considerable. All such institutions, therefore, are forced to try

and organise exhibitions that will not only break even, but generate income.

When these go well—as in this case— it’s hard to see a problem. Indeed, ‘Dior’ will continue to generate revenue as it goes on tour. Yet there are real risks here. Not only are blockbusters very expensive— which means they can equally lose money —but the pursuit of them can both swallow curatorial resources wholesale and skew the spirit of an institution. Looking ahead to the 2020–21 V&A schedule, indeed, Athena feels a little bit nervous as to whether commerce or culture is really the driving force. Time will tell.

These visitor figures also highlight a peculiarity about the present funding model for our museums. Over the past two decades, Government has insisted that there should be free access to the permanent collections of national museums. Other cultural bodies and institutions, indeed, have been gradually starved of public funding to maintain this costly policy.

Yet for every national museum in London, the vast majority of visitors who take advantage of free access to the permanent collections are tourists. The precise figure varies from institution to institution, but it hovers around the two-thirds mark for every single one.

This profile, however, is almost exactly reversed when it comes to most exhibitions, which are largely attended by UK visitors. Nor do they come cheaply: tickets to ‘Dior’ cost between £20–£24.

The overall result is a massive centralisation of resources on national museums with some taxpayers paying twice for their attendance of exhibitions—once for the museum and once for the ticket. Conscious of this awkwardness, national museums work very hard to spread the benefits they enjoy, engaging with regional institutions through exhibition and loan programmes and the offer of expertise. Some, such as the V&A and Tate, also preside over growing ‘families’ of associated museums.

On balance, this system just about operates, but Athena is sensitive to its failings and would observe that it’s a very fragile merry-go-round.