Britain Should Have A Museum Revolution
Whether giving a glimpse to the past, teaching us about scientific discoveries or giving us a glimpse into our natural world, museums have an ability to inspire our imaginations in a way that tv or the internet never could.
The United States boasts a variety of large and well stocked museums in every major city, allowing people to reach exceptional exhibits in no more than a few hours, wherever they live. The Field Museum in Chicago, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. are just a few of the incredible museums you can visit in different parts of the States.
London boasts some of the world’s top museums in art, natural history, military and the sciences. Yet outside the capitol the UK suffers a chronic lack of major museums with only a handful dotted around the country.
At the same time many of our great museums hold huge collections unused in storage with the British Museum keeping 99% of its collection in storage, the Natural History Museum (London) keeping 95% of its specimen collection in storage and the National Maritime Museum keeping 93% of its paintings and prints away from public display.
Now parts of these collections won’t be in suitable condition for display, nonetheless there are plenty of national treasures here. So let’s open a raft of new Museums in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff and Edinburgh and get these collections out into the country. People living out in the provinces should be able to visit large museums without travelling all the way to London.
This can be a great step towards reducing the capitol’s dominance of our national life and breath new life into our other great cities.
