Local Things for Local People?

The blog post for this week is written by Dr Carolyn Graves-Brown, the Curator at the Egypt Centre, a position she has held since 1997. She has been curator of two other museums (Neath Museum and Littlehampton Museum), assistant curator at one, and volunteer at another. She is a member of the Museums Association, Conseil international des musées (ICOM), and the Lithics Study Society.

Until 1997, I worked in local authority run museums, which laid great emphasis on the local. This is something I then thought, and still believe, is very important. Local museums can play a real role in enhancing civic pride and all the benefits that brings. However, where does that leave collections like the Egypt Centre? On Friday, I gave a talk on how the study of a small Welsh collection of Egyptological items at Swansea Museum threw a light on the local (fig. 1). This was achieved through exploring object biographies concentrating on how the objects came to Swansea and the characters involved in their collection and display. Such a study is more difficult, though not impossible, where the objects only have a short local history such as with the Egypt Centre, whose collection only came to Swansea in 1971.

Fig. 1: Facade of Swansea Museum

But, I wonder, ethically are museums too concerned with the local? Museum strategies have a tendency to stress the local in their aims and objectives, no wonder as their governing bodies are local and no-one wants to bite the hand that feeds them. National bodies also tend to stress their individuality and they give grants. So, we need to show what we are doing for Wales to receive money from the Welsh government. The same is true of the Egypt Centre, as you can see in our Forward Plan. Of course, additionally, many museums were set up with a local purpose, to enhance civic pride.

Fig. 2: Mummy of Hor in Swansea Museum

However, should museums be more outward looking? I have often wondered this. Cynically, one might say, it is trying to find a clear purpose for the Egypt Centre, that declaring a museum’s role as international makes life easier. Yet surely we should all embrace the international? Museums could play a greater part in improving international co-operation, and not simply those with ‘exotic’ collections. Sharing museological best practise, as for example is done by ICOM, is one way of looking outward. Museum twinning may also play a part. Finally, a great many long-established museums do have exotic collections and many of course do make much of them rather than hiding them away.

Fig. 3: Glass fragment from the Valley of the Kings collected by Welsh Egyptologist Ernest Harold Jones

I’m not arguing for either local or national, just wondering if a little more emphasis should be placed on the international? Thoughts please!