Museums for the many? Rhetorical optimism and the failure of sustained political will at three London government-funded museums – then and now

This article contends that there are considerable similarities between nineteenth- and twenty-first-century aspirations for museums – not least, in respect to promises of “museums for the many”. Despite contemporary policy makers of different political allegiances embracing similar rhetorics, in general they appear to have had little interest in reflecting on previous realities. This article focuses on attendances at three national museums, in particular the British Museum, the National Gallery and, the Victoria & Albert Museum (formerly, the South Kensington Museum) over two periods: from the early 1850s to the late 1880s, and from the late 1970s to the present. It interrogates those and other institutions’ visit data for evidence of whether they did, indeed, deliver to “the many”. It questions the commitment of state-supported museums to those target audiences, both then and now.

本文认为，19世纪与21世纪的博物馆发展愿景存在诸多显著共通之处，其中尤以“面向大众的博物馆”这一承诺最为核心。尽管不同政治立场的当代政策制定者均采用了相似的论述修辞，但总体而言，他们似乎鲜少反思过往的实践实况。本文聚焦三家国立博物馆的参观人次数据，具体涵盖大英博物馆（British Museum）、英国国家美术馆（National Gallery）以及维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆（Victoria & Albert Museum，前身为南肯辛顿博物馆（South Kensington Museum）），研究时段分为两段：19世纪50年代初至19世纪80年代末，以及20世纪70年代末至今。本文通过剖析上述及其他文博机构的参观数据，验证它们是否切实兑现了“面向大众”的承诺，并探讨了国立博物馆无论在过往还是当下，对其目标受众群体的承诺履行情况。