Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online debate as part of the York Festival of Ideas looking at the challenges and opportunities of the current pandemic for museums and art galleries. This was a live Zoom discussion, but I watched the recording on YouTube later. It was well chaired by Jonathon Derbyshire, Deputy News Editor of The Times, and brought together four panellists from the sector. It was a imaginative range of speakers including Frances Morris, Direct or Tate Modern; Reyahn King, Chief Executive of York Museums’ Trust; Brendon Corrier, Senior Design Curator, V&A and Michael White, Head of History of Art at the University of York. The chair set each speaker three initial questions, how are they coping, how galleries help community cohesion and how will the pandemic change how they operate long term? These were answered eloquently from Corrier using the example of a blog focusing on objects which have become important during the pandemic to Morris discussing Tate Moderns work with their loc...

Fabulous new museum space at Westminster Abbey built in the triforium high up above the abbey floor.   I’d been so excited about this development since I first read about it and it didn’t disappoint. I loved the space, actually built in about 1250 during the reign of Henry III and the views it gave over the inside of the abbey and of the roofs and across Parliament Square and the Houses of Parliament. A new tower had been built to give access to the space with, thank goodness, a lift. I loved the touch that stripes of the different stones used to build the abbey were inserted up the inside of the tower. The objects in the space were just as stunning! Divided into four themed areas it covers the Abbey and national memory, the building of the Abbey, worship and daily life and the Abbey and the monarchy. You just kept falling over amazing unique things. I loved the corbel heads with wonderful crisp carving as they’ve never been exposed to the elements. These must be...

Nice refurbishment of the Garden Museum. I went to this museum just before it closed for refurbishment and found it delightful. I was therefore interested to see what changes had been made. The museum section looked cleaner and had the objects had been rehung. There was a lovely mix of paintings and objects exploring the history of and various themes in gardening. There is a new small art gallery to one side overlooking the old chancel space. I forgot to say it’s a converted church. There was also a nice new space looking at the history of the site which originally had been the site of Tradescant’s Ark of unusual objects. The collection from which went on to form the basis of the Ashmolean Museum. If you’ve not heard about it before try Philippa Gregory’s two novels about Tradescant and his son, Earthly Joy and Virgin Earth. The biggest change was to cloister at the back which has been enclosed round the edge and a nice new café has been built to one side. The courtya...

Delightful temporary museum for the London Fire Brigade in Lambeth. This pop-up museum is using the space under another temporary museum, the Migration Museum. I assumed it was a pop up for the summer but the friendly guides explained that it had been there for about 10 months. There was a display of engines and all the equipment which is needed for an incident. There was also a virtual reality experience of fighting a fire but I chickened out of that! There was good room telling the history of the fire brigade in London with a mix of well written commentary boards and a few choice items. It was a nice touch that the room was painted in fire brigade red. There were also good boards on the plans to build a new museum on the site of a fire in which a number of fireman died in the late 9th century and the site of the London brigades first HQ. The plan is to build on the river and use the museum to regenerate the area. It looks really excepting. When I was there there was...

New temporary space for the Migration Museum, as they work towards getting a permanent home to tell the story of how the movement of people has shaped Britain across the ages. The space is based in Lambeth and it feels a bit unlikely as you walk towards it that there might be a museum there. Even once inside the rather industrial looking space it took a moment to realise that the museum was up a flight of stairs. Once there it had been set out nicely and is currently being used for   series of exhibitions, events and workshops. The staff were friendly and there were conversations going on with people from possible new projects giving the space quite an active feel. I wish the project good luck and look forward to seeing where it might find a permanent home. Closes Spring 2018. Review Evening Standard    

Fantastic new refurbishment of the Imperial War Museum. The museum seemed to have been shut for ages but it was worth the wait as the new lay out is really good. It took me a while to realise that one floor has been removed dropping the large objects down to what was the basement. This gives a great view looking down on them as you come in. This then gives new gallery space to one side, where the First World War galleries are, and the inevitable bigger café space. Top tip if you just want a cup of coffee and cake there is another quieter café on one of the upper floors. There is also an impressive grey staircase running up the atrium which has releieved pressuer on the back stairs. I like the roof terrace space inside at the top of the building but I was a bit unsure what it would be used for. On the old ground floor the new gallery, round the end of the atrium, now tells the story of the Second World War with large objects. I did find the information boards here q...