Accessible Museums in England

Museums in England

The range of choice to learn about human culture is vast.  However one of the things that is most striking is the effort to make it accessible to everyone in England.  The fact that you can walk into The National Gallery or The Tate Modern for free is a credit to the government itself. The fact that you pay to access visiting shows ties the costs directly to covering the costs of the exhibit.    It is interesting that Canada and the United States are supposedly the great democratic unions that do not carry the same hierarchical structure that exists in England.  And yet, our cultural learning is available only at a cost.  The best that we can hope for are reduced student rates or family memberships.  At best this creates a greater access but not an equitable access.

The last time I was in England, I was 17 years old and I had just graduated from Magee Secondary School.  As you would expect, how I viewed "art" was from an entirely different perspective.  Having always been of the journalist bent, I can remember or read my journal entries about my interpretations as I stood in front of "famous" paintings, sculptures, or architecture.  The interpretation after having walked the path of ultimate joy and ultimate despair lends itself to an entirely different viewing.  It certainly creates a good case for regular access throughout the formative years and beyond in the grant quest to create meaning in our lives.

I overheard one of the docents asking the group of young students in The National Gallery, which was their favourite painting so far.  She made it very clear that they didn't have to have a reason.  They needed to just respond as opposed to creating a rationale framed on "expert interpretations" for their choice.  When our children were young, they regularly attended sessions at The Place Des Art in the COQ and Super Sunday Family Day at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  By the time they were 6 and 8 years old and trekking through the galleries of Italy,  they considered themselves artists and would seriously pour over their drawing books and provide their response to what they were seeing.  As young adults, they are not as tied to the convention of a "right or wrong" or even a need to rationalise their thoughts or feelings or response.  I think it is something that is quite freeing and has allowed them to express themselves without adherence to external expectation.  Tyler it plays out directly in his studies.  For Larkyn is plays out in her art as she expresses her feelings.