Full disclosure: I’m working on the social media for the ILoveMuseums.com campaign.

The concept behind the campaign is to get enough signatures on a petitions to show government that we care about museums and can’t afford any more cuts to funding and budgets and still survive. I Love Museums is a campaign led by the National Museum Directors’ Council with support from: Arts Council England, Association of Independent Museums, Culture24, Museums Association, The Art Fund, University Museums Group, Army Museums Ogilby Trust.

I Love Museums launched in June, after the elections with a day of trending and people worldwide filling in the statement #ILoveMuseums because _______. There were over 1200 signatures in one day.

Since then, not much.  We’ve have had people sharing visits with #ILoveMuseums but the support has seemed to wean off.

Last week I attended a debate at Parliament as MP Robert Jenrick asked for a ballot on Regional support for the arts.  I went representing I Love Museums to live tweet (see Storify here). The #artsfunding debate is similar to #ILoveMuseums:  stop the cuts and support museums and galleries outside of London as much as those in London.

Much of the public money that goes into the arts is channelled through Arts Council England (ACE), which receives a direct grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), as well as distributing Lottery grants. As part of the general squeeze on public finances, the last Parliament saw significant reductions in the funds set aside for the arts. Some people feel that ‘prestige’, London-based organisations – galleries and museums, theatre, opera and ballet companies, orchestras, etc – continue to get preferential treatment from funders.

With the launch of its investment plans for 2015-18 in July 2014, ACE signalled its determination to rectify historic imbalances between London and the rest of England. There were specific initiatives to build capacity outside London, to encourage cultural communities to grow and to encourage touring.

After struggling to get the I Love Museums petition to 1500 sign ups, I tweeted this morning:

Having a hard time understanding why there is such a struggle to get people to sign the @ILoveMuseums petition. Any ideas? #ILoveMuseums

— Mar Dixon (@MarDixon) July 19, 2015

Some of the answers:

@MarDixon Maybe not publicised enough? Maybe not grass roots enough? Maybe not sure what it is for? Maybe bigger thing better for petition?

— Alexandra Woodall (@alexwoodall) July 19, 2015

@MarDixon @ILoveMuseums could be lack a clear goal. Museums won’t close if I don’t sign the petition. There is no clear threat to fight for.

— Kippelboy (@Kippelboy) July 19, 2015

@MarDixon @ILoveMuseums will it make a difference? We had a petition of 2,180 for Bromley Museum and wrote to councillors/MPS made no impact

— Tincture Of Museum (@TinctureOfMuse) July 19, 2015

@MarDixon @ILoveMuseums Perversely, perhaps because it is positive? Many Internet petitions are based on language like “stop” or “ban”.

— Adrian Murphy (@acediscovery) July 19, 2015

@MarDixon@ILoveMuseums Because people don’t yet see a severe and immediate threat?

— Frieda Midgley (@Frieda_M) July 19, 2015

My question to you:  What can we do to get you to take #ILoveMuseums and the #ArtsFunding debate seriously?  Why do we constantly have to wait until we have a fight on our hands to show the love and respect we have for our culture? 

As a strong supporter of NHS, libraries, young people and more, I know how tiring it is to always seem like we’re signing one petition over the other.  I get it.  But I also get we can NOT stop letting our voices heard.  I Love Museums has the right partners and right people behind it – we just need the public to know this is about their access to culture for all! 

Actions:

• Please sign the petition
• Download the resources and share
• Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr

Further Reading:

• I Love Museums website
• House of Common Library Regional support for the arts

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately for different reasons.  Without prejudice or background on why I was asking, I tweeted:

What is a Thought Leader and or Cultural Leader? Seriously, I’m trying to figure out what it means and who decides who they are.

It has been an interesting discussion/debate.  It seems to be a term used and known but no real clear definition or role description. But yet we as a society continue to label people as Thought Leaders and Cultural Leaders without really knowing what it means.  I don’t know about you, but this interest and confuses me.  To be fair, it is not just culture that has this issue.  This issue could be said with tech, education, publishing, etc.  Read the rest of this entry »

What is a Children’s Museum?  Sounds like a simple question which should have an even easier answer but after a recent conversation with my husband, I’m not so sure.  He had just returned from visiting a children’s museum to see a puppet exhibition and was surprised to see a sand pit for children to play in located right next to a Victorian puppet booth making it very difficult for the exhibit to be seen, with children playing on the floor and sand everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »