The Stage

Museum consultation was ‘a sham’ claim industry figures

Published Wednesday 23 August 2006 at 16:55 by Alistair Smith

Serious doubts were raised by the Theatre Museum’s ruling committee over whether the Victoria and Albert Museum made a genuine attempt to consult the theatre industry over the institution’s future, The Stage can reveal.

In March, the V&A launched the Theatre Museum Review - an official consultation over the future of the museum, following outrage in the industry after plans to shut down the Theatreland site were exposed.

However, documents obtained by The Stage under the Freedom of Information Act show that a senior figure on the Theatre Museum Committee - Society of London Theatre chief executive Richard Pulford - questioned why the V&A was asking for views when it seemed to be already pursuing a partnership with the Royal Opera House. SOLT had been mooted as a potential partner for the ROH and V&A but later declined to join the scheme.

Minutes from the April 11 meeting of the Theatre Museum Committee record that Pulford “asked what the purpose of the consultation was given that it appeared as if a deal was already being forged with the ROH”. In response, V&A deputy director Ian Blatchford insisted “no decision had been taken yet and that the consultation process was a valid and genuine one”.

However, in the first meeting of the V&A’s trustees after the Theatre Museum Review was completed, the V&A board acknowledged that “the process had produced some interesting ideas, particularly one from a local authority,” before going on to say that it could not pursue that idea because the trustees were “concerned that the current discussions with ROH were completed before engaging with a major new project”.

Campaigners for the Theatre Museum have denounced the V&A’s consultation process as “a sham”. When presented with the information, a spokesperson for the V&A insisted: “The V&A has been consulting widely on the future of the Theatre Museum since March this year. The idea of a partnership with the ROH came out of this process as have other interesting ideas. They are not mutually exclusive and we are exploring these options.”

However, minutes show the partnership with the Royal Opera House was under way before the consultation was launched at the end of March and that the ROH proposals did not come out of the Theatre Museum Review but were under discussion before then - a fact that has never been disputed by the Opera House.

John Levitt, chair of the Save London’s Theatres Campaign and a key figure in the bid to save the museum, headed more than 20 industry organisations in supplying a response to the consultation document.

He said: “The V&A has clearly not given careful thought to the future of the museum. We think it was all rather a sham.

“We wanted face to face discussions. That hasn’t happened and we haven’t received a response to our consultation submission. This is one of the most important parts of British social history and they’re treating it like some bothersome appendage they have to do something with to shut us up.”