The Stage

Theatre Museum ‘could live on without V&A’

Published Wednesday 27 September 2006 at 15:45 by Alistair Smith

An independent Theatre Museum, divorced from parent institution the Victoria and Albert Museum, will now be considered following the collapse of the proposed Royal Opera House partnership.

As revealed on The Stage Online earlier this week, hopes of retaining the museum at its current Theatreland base were dealt a heavy blow after the ROH decided not to move forward with its proposals for a revamped Covent Garden site.

V&A director Mark Jones told The Stage that as things stand, the museum will close permanently in January. However, he would listen to suggestions for redeveloping the Covent Garden site, regardless of whether these involved the V&A.

“We’re now back to where we were before,” he explained. “The premises are not right and the money to make them right isn’t there… If someone wants to put forward an idea that there should be a freestanding theatre museum, we would consider it.”

Jones blamed the “general climate of public funding” for the collapse of the talks, saying it had proved impossible to find a third party to join the partnership.

The V&A will now look to set up a permanent gallery for theatrical exhibitions at its Kensington base but this would not be in place before the end of 2009. It is also looking to launch one-off exhibitions in Kensington, as well as touring material.

ROH chief executive Tony Hall, meanwhile, said that he was disappointed that the plans had not come to fruition but he did not regret the attempts to retain the museum in Covent Garden.

“We wanted another partner to represent the theatre community but sadly that just hasn’t come about,” he commented. “If you’re in the public sector at the moment, funding going forward looks tight. If you’re in the commercial sector funding is always tight… The cost of quite minimal things to freshen up the place was north of £1 million. We found one funder who made it known they could provide some of that but not even half the likely sum.”

Campaigners who fought against the V&A’s original proposals to shut down the museum, claimed the latest development proved the institution was no longer fit to run the museum.

Actress Vanessa Redgrave called on the minister for museums to step in and halt the closure. She said: “The Theatre Museum does not and cannot belong to the V&A to dispose of as they see fit. It should immediately join into partnership with those of us who perform so that even the paltry funding that they have to dispose of can be added to by performers who will set about raising funds.”

Equity said that it was “appalled” by the turn of events. “Those voices that were raised during the consultation process claiming it was a sham now appear to have been correct,” said general secretary Christine Payne. “Nobody in the process that we are aware of thought closing the museum in Covent Garden was a good idea.”

Save London’s Theatres Campaign chair John Levitt said the V&A had been “irresponsible”. He continued: “The story of the Theatre Museum is not over. I believe in the long term there must be an independent theatre museum directly funded and in its own building. We are talking with others about setting up a support group for the museum, as we don’t believe that the V&A is fit to have control of the museum.”