Labour must resist the cultural vandalism of making people pay to visit museums and galleries - the piece below also appears in this week's edition of Tribune
According to Tristram Hunt, the historian and Labour MP, writing in the Observer on March 6: “A truly equitable cultural policy might begin to think about reintroducing charges for our national museums and galleries.”
But many would argue that the most equitable policy is the one we have already – a policy that has delivered record numbers of visitors to national museums and galleries. Opinion polls have shown this to be the most popular policy introduced by the Labour Government in the years 1997-2001.
Tristram Hunt ought to study some recent history. In the 1980s, museums came under pressure from Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government to charge for admission in order to make them less dependent on state funding.
The result was that nearly 50 per cent of the major national museums introduced charges, while the rest, including the British Museum, the Tate and the National Gallery, resisted doing so.
What happened next is illuminating in terms of the likely impact of any return to a charging policy. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, visitor numbers at free national museums grew spectacularly. In contrast, many of the charging museums suffered marked declines in attendances. For example, the Victoria and Albert Museum introduced a £5 admission charge in 1997 and saw its visitor numbers halved as a consequence.
Labour came to power in 1997 having made a commitment to reinstate free entry at the national museums. The belief was that doing this would significantly broaden the range of people visiting museums. The devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales also opted to fund free entry at the national museums they support.
Free entry for all was introduced at all their sites in 2001. All the national museums which dropped charges saw substantial increases in their visitor numbers – an average rise of 70 per cent.
In the first year after free admission was introduced, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s visitor figures rose by 111 per cent – from 1.1 million to 2.3 million. Figures have continued to rise. Compared with 2001, an additional 5.3 million people visited the free museums in 2002, another 5.6 million in 2003 and another six million in 2004.
Many of these museums completed hugely successful Heritage Lottery Fund projects in or around the same period and these have also had an enormous effect on visitor numbers. According to research undertaken by the Museums Association, the museums most successful in terms of attendances were those which opened new or newly-refurbished facilities and introduced free admission.
Hunt’s argument seems to be predicated on the notion that if the excellent Potteries Museum in his Stoke Central constituency is forced to charge for entry, then so should the National Gallery and the British Museum. It would be a more principled and far-sighted approach to defend free entry to all publicly-funded museum and galleries, especially in the present hard economic climate.
Free access enables people to use museums and galleries in different ways – not just to educate, inform, amaze and delight, but to meet friends and as places for research, thought and reflection. In other words, museums and galleries are important civic and social spaces.
While admission charges may not be the only barrier to the less well-off, nevertheless they are a significant barrier. Museums and galleries have more in common with libraries than other venues for a day out, because they are about learning as well as about enjoyment.
We should be proud of Labour’s record in this area and argue for the retention of the current policy. As a progressive movement, we should be debating how future cultural policy could further increase public access to and participation in the arts.
The reintroduction of charging for entry to national museums and galleries would be a regressive act. As Tristram Hunt should know, looking to the past has much to commend it. But living in it does not.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Shining a light on Islam
I have recently reviewed the book 'Being Muslim' by Haroon Siddiqui for the Times Educational Supplement - you can alos find the review online at
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6078806
Terrorism, wars, jihad, the hijab and the burka, polygamy, female circumcision, honour killings, stoning and the status of Muslim women. These are just a few of the topics covered in award-winning Canadian journalist Haroon Siddiqui's readable, engaging and rather provocative book, Being Muslim, part of the Groundwork series of books for key stages 3 and 4 which attempts to provide an overview of key contemporary social and political issues.
Helping students better understand what it means to be a Muslim in the modern world is important. According to a YouGov poll published last year, more than 75 per cent of non-Muslims believe Islam has made a negative contribution to British society. In the same poll, 58 per cent linked Islam with extremism and 69 per cent believed it encouraged the repression of women. But perhaps most revealing of all was the fact that more than 80 per cent of those polled admitted to having very little knowledge about the Islamic faith, its beliefs and practices.
Any teacher thinking about using this book with their pupils would need to be clear about what it is not: it is not a traditional RE-style textbook that will help pupils gain knowledge and understanding about the five pillars of Islam. But this does not mean it is not enlightening and informative. Siddiqui's explanations of common Muslim phrases and etiquette as clues to Islamic attitudes to life and destiny are fascinating, as are his explanations of the role of culture versus religion in women's activities and dress codes. He tackles some really tough topics, offering a remarkably balanced overview of the range of opinions, particularly within the Islamic community, on contentious issues such as the role of women.
Though not a traditional classroom textbook, Being Muslim is excellent for helping young people explore current political, religious and secular aspects of being a member of the world's fastest-growing religion.
If you're after ready-made discussion questions or pre-packaged ideas for whole-class debate, however, this is not the book for you.
The author is not afraid to challenge Western assumptions about Islam and is prepared to assign blame to both Western democracies and Islamic fundamentalists for fanning the flames of Islamophobia. Drawing on his travels and interviews in Muslim countries, Siddiqui attempts to show that extremists are being challenged by a new generation of Muslims. He also asks some penetrating questions. For example, why does the UK government turn a blind eye to suffocating restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia? Siddiqui acknowledges the desperate living conditions that many Muslims endure in the developing world and recognises the need to address these circumstances instead of offering them as a valid excuse for violence.
In one of the most poignant and thought-provoking parts of the book, he describes what post-9/11 life has been like for Muslims in the UK, the US and Muslim countries. He says: "Monitored by both the secret services and the media, they must be careful about what they say in emails, phone conversations and in public. They must think twice about keeping a beard or wearing overtly Muslim clothing and be mindful of their behaviour in public. They must keep proving, in school and at work, that neither they nor their faith fit the caricature of Muslims and Islam drilled into the public consciousness."
In the opening chapter, Siddiqui writes that "every Muslim must do jihad", then, somewhat reassuringly, you find out later in the book that the word jihad is more accurately translated as "struggle", rather than as some sort of "holy war" or "crusade". There are other surprises: a section called "Laughing at the Siege" introduces readers to the world of Muslim comedy. We also find out the difference between hijab and burka, the logistics of providing food and water for pilgrims of the Hajj and Islamic references in hip-hop music.
This is a book that can help teachers to deal clearly and directly with current contentious issues involving Islam. It is refreshingly unequivocal and, in my view, highly effective in exposing double standards and inconsistencies in contemporary media coverage relating to Islam.
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6078806
Terrorism, wars, jihad, the hijab and the burka, polygamy, female circumcision, honour killings, stoning and the status of Muslim women. These are just a few of the topics covered in award-winning Canadian journalist Haroon Siddiqui's readable, engaging and rather provocative book, Being Muslim, part of the Groundwork series of books for key stages 3 and 4 which attempts to provide an overview of key contemporary social and political issues.
Helping students better understand what it means to be a Muslim in the modern world is important. According to a YouGov poll published last year, more than 75 per cent of non-Muslims believe Islam has made a negative contribution to British society. In the same poll, 58 per cent linked Islam with extremism and 69 per cent believed it encouraged the repression of women. But perhaps most revealing of all was the fact that more than 80 per cent of those polled admitted to having very little knowledge about the Islamic faith, its beliefs and practices.
Any teacher thinking about using this book with their pupils would need to be clear about what it is not: it is not a traditional RE-style textbook that will help pupils gain knowledge and understanding about the five pillars of Islam. But this does not mean it is not enlightening and informative. Siddiqui's explanations of common Muslim phrases and etiquette as clues to Islamic attitudes to life and destiny are fascinating, as are his explanations of the role of culture versus religion in women's activities and dress codes. He tackles some really tough topics, offering a remarkably balanced overview of the range of opinions, particularly within the Islamic community, on contentious issues such as the role of women.
Though not a traditional classroom textbook, Being Muslim is excellent for helping young people explore current political, religious and secular aspects of being a member of the world's fastest-growing religion.
If you're after ready-made discussion questions or pre-packaged ideas for whole-class debate, however, this is not the book for you.
The author is not afraid to challenge Western assumptions about Islam and is prepared to assign blame to both Western democracies and Islamic fundamentalists for fanning the flames of Islamophobia. Drawing on his travels and interviews in Muslim countries, Siddiqui attempts to show that extremists are being challenged by a new generation of Muslims. He also asks some penetrating questions. For example, why does the UK government turn a blind eye to suffocating restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia? Siddiqui acknowledges the desperate living conditions that many Muslims endure in the developing world and recognises the need to address these circumstances instead of offering them as a valid excuse for violence.
In one of the most poignant and thought-provoking parts of the book, he describes what post-9/11 life has been like for Muslims in the UK, the US and Muslim countries. He says: "Monitored by both the secret services and the media, they must be careful about what they say in emails, phone conversations and in public. They must think twice about keeping a beard or wearing overtly Muslim clothing and be mindful of their behaviour in public. They must keep proving, in school and at work, that neither they nor their faith fit the caricature of Muslims and Islam drilled into the public consciousness."
In the opening chapter, Siddiqui writes that "every Muslim must do jihad", then, somewhat reassuringly, you find out later in the book that the word jihad is more accurately translated as "struggle", rather than as some sort of "holy war" or "crusade". There are other surprises: a section called "Laughing at the Siege" introduces readers to the world of Muslim comedy. We also find out the difference between hijab and burka, the logistics of providing food and water for pilgrims of the Hajj and Islamic references in hip-hop music.
This is a book that can help teachers to deal clearly and directly with current contentious issues involving Islam. It is refreshingly unequivocal and, in my view, highly effective in exposing double standards and inconsistencies in contemporary media coverage relating to Islam.
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