Widening the gulf ...

Here is another example of the Arts Council mis-understanding museums and widening the gulf of understanding between museums and artists. These are the 'objectives' of an ACE-funded project:

• To support museums and artists to work together to open up museum collections in new ways
• To extend the skills of museum staff and artists (note who is listed first) and build their understanding of each others practice (why?)
• To provide inspiring and stretching opportunities for artists (note no mention of museum benefits)
• To attract new audiences to museums (how about helping museums to do what they are already doing, only better)
• To introduce ‘traditional’ museum audiences to high quality contemporary art (note the use of the ‘ ‘. Is it exclusive, or descriptive of museums in general?)

There is no sign that the museums and galleries concerned got any money out of the scheme; just the artists who were teaching the museums how to do things properly.