Cathy's Art Diary

Beautiful refurbishment of the Photography Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum. At first look I felt that not a lot had changed as the first galleries, although rehung, don’t look that different but you then go through the door at the end and find four new rooms.   The first is a digital space which is currently showing a work by Jake Elwes analysing the effect of AI online on images of trans people. This then leads into a beautiful space for the Royal Photographic Society Library which has been donated to the museum and to highlight the role of books in photography. It includes a temporary display space which is currently showing books on photographing dogs so of course I loved it. The last two rooms are showing new acquisitions which contrast nicely with the refurbished 19th century rooms. Reviews Guardian Evening Standard  

Eclectic and fun day from the BBC highlighting the work of museums and galleries through live streams and an interactive website. Dan Vo and Sacha Coward, freelance curators, lead the day via a series of live streams where they talk to museum staff and cultural commentators about what galleries and museums are doing during lock down from checking items in store to creating online material and running archive projects to collect stories and objects from this time. They define galleries, libraries, archives and museums as the GLAM sector and, as a librarian, I am happy to be part of that! The written live feed includes links to some fascinating videos on exhibitions which were on when lockdown made by the BBC started including “London Calling: The Clash” at the Museum of London and “Art Deco by the Sea” from Norwich. Also, great pointers to short pieces on museum websites about their exhibitions and fun content they are putting out. I am spending some time during the day fol...

Fascinating pairing of speakers at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at peoples’ personal rooms.   Mark Purcell, who had been librarian for the National Trust, talked about country house libraries looking at the both as rooms but also as collections. He had beautiful illustrations and lots of quirky and interesting stories. He talked about rooms which were public spaces but other which were more private which he described in one case as “the Earl’s shed”!   Nina Stratchey then talked about her beautiful book looking at the rooms of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sachville-West and Eddy Sackville-West. Of course this was heaven to a Charleston audience! Although I’ve been to Knole quite often I can’t remember seeing Eddy Sackville-West’s own rooms there and they are so lovely in shades of pink and blue and with a screen by Duncan Grant. She told us how all of the pictures at Monk’s House are described by Virginia in letters and diaries as she a...

An excellent interview at the British Library with the chief executive of the library, Roly Keating, which was also broadcast live to Sheffield City Libraries. Keating was interviewed by Gaby Wood, Literary Director of the Booker Foundation and it was interesting to hear him say that he put custodianship as the core of the library’s offering and all other services and uses flow from that. He talked about the formation of the library and the project to design and build the new building. He also talked about ongoing projects including the Living Knowledge report looking at what the library should be like by its 50th anniversary. The interview marked the start of a season of talks in celebration of libraries.