After cuts forced Bradford to send its photo archive to London final week,battle lines are being drawn on the future of key museums external the capitalA provincial museum, according to affectionate caricature, and ought to display shards of Roman pottery next to some prehistoric flints,a selection of civic silver plate and a bit of faded heraldry in a dim glass case. But the time for such fond condescension is over. Battle lines have been drawn because many of Britain’s 700 publicly funded regional museums – which mostly inspect nothing like the caricature – are in jeopardy.
Unique treasures have already been lost: from weaving mills in Lancashire to the military record of the Light Infantry in Durham; from the steam-powered tools of Leicestershire, to a renowned collection of photographs in Bradford. And now funding cuts are forcing more institutions, and all heavily invested with municipal pride,to either close for great or shut off some galleries, and to sell off prized collections or consign them to town hall cellars.
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Source: theguardian.com