Museums and Identity in Glasgow

Abstract

In order to explore the extent to which museums can go beyond expressing and influence people's individual and communal identities, this article reviews episodes from the past 20 years in the history of one group of museums. Glasgow Museums comprise the largest civic museum service in the UK, with international quality collections of art, history and natural history. The city also suffers from some of the worst levels of health, poverty and educational attainment in Britain. Within the context of these contrasts and of the interaction of diverse local, class and religious identities, the museum service has tried to achieve its various objectives: making ‘high culture’ widely accessible, providing a recreational and educational facility for local people, expressing civic pride and promoting cultural tourism. This article explores both the impact of these factors on Glasgow Museums and the attempts by Glasgow Museums to influence the identities of their visitors and to contribute to the creation of a more just society.

Keywords:

• Museums
• Galleries
• Identity
• Justice
• Culture

Notes

[1] http://www.glasgowmuseums.com

[2] Myerscough, Economic Importance of the Arts in Glasgow.

[3] Baniotopoulou, ‘Art for Whose Sake?’; García, ‘Glasgow Lessons can Help Liverpool’; Gomez, ‘Reflective Images’; Gomez and Gonzalez, ‘A Reply to Beatriz Plaza's “The Guggenheim‐Bilbao Museum Effect”’; Heartfield, ‘“Capital of Complaints”: Liverpool's Unique Cultural Signature Dwells on a Sense of Victimhood’, http://www.Spikedonline.com, 5 June 2003; Kansai Window, wwwkansai.gr.jp, 1999; Palmer/Rae Associates, European Cities of Culture and Cultural Months 1995–2004; Plaza, ‘The Guggenheim‐Bilbao Museum Effect’; Senator John Tierney, ‘Lessons from Glasgow’, Speeches, www.senatortierney.com

[4] Boyle and Hughes, ‘The Politics of the Representation of “the Real”’; Booth and Boyle, ‘See Glasgow, See Culture’; Danson and Mooney, ‘Beyond “Culture City”’; Danson and Mooney, ‘Glasgow: A Tale of Two Cities?’; Myerscough, Monitoring Glasgow 1990; Sayer, ‘The City of Glasgow, Scotland’; Young, ‘The Glasgow Factor’.

[5] Glendinning and Page in Clone City.

[6] Checkland, The Upas Tree: Glasgow 1875–1975 … and after.

[7] ‘Shadow’, Midnight Scenes and Social Photographs, Being Sketches of Life in the Streets, Wynds and Dens of the City.

[8] BBC World News Web site, www.bbc.com/worldnews, 18 February 2002.

[9] Keating, The City that Refused to Die, Glasgow.

[10] Booth and Boyle, ‘See Glasgow, See Culture’.

[11] Landry, The Creative City.

[12] Gibbon, ‘Glasgow’.

[13] Danson and Mooney, ‘Beyond “Culture City”’.

[14] Glasgow City Council, Best Value Review of Museums, 2001.

[15] Duncan, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums; Bourdieu and Darbel, The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public.

[16] Dewey, Experience and Education; O'Neill, ‘What Would Museums be Like if they Took Education Seriously?’; O'Neill, ‘The Good Enough Visitor’.

[17] Cunnison and Gilfillan, The Third Statistical Account of Glasgow.

[18] King, ‘The Cream of the Dross’; King, ‘Labour History at the People's Palace’.

[19] Gray, ‘Heroes and Villains, Elspeth King’, The Independent Magazine, 13 July 1991; Boyle and Hughes, ‘The Politics of the Representation of “the Real”’; Kelman, ‘Storm in the Palace’, The New Statesman, 3 August 1990.

[20] Boyle and Hughes, ‘The Politics of the Representation of “the Real”’.

[21] Carnegie et al., The People's Palace Book of Glasgow.

[22] Maan, ‘The New Scots’.

[23] Treble, ‘The Occupied Male Labour Force’; Gordon, ‘Women's Spheres’.

[24] Hamnett and Shoval, ‘Museums as Flagship of Urban Development’.

[25] Gay, The Pleasure Wars.

[26] Merriman, Beyond the Glass Case.

[27] Dodd, A Catalyst for Change; Newman et al., ‘Museums and the Active Citizen’.

[28] Glasgow City Council, Best Value Review of Museums.

[29] O'Neill, ‘What Would Museums be Like if they Took Education Seriously?’

[30] O'Neill, ’Curating Feelings’.

[31] Arthur, ‘Exhibiting the Sacred’.

[32] Gibbon, ‘Glasgow’.

[33] O'Neill, ‘Enlightenment Museums’.

[34] Gurian, ‘Function Follows Form’.

[35] Dodd, A Catalyst for Change; Newman et al., ‘Museums and the Active Citizen’.