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.

本文主张，19世纪与21世纪的博物馆发展愿景之间存在显著共通之处，尤以"面向大众的博物馆"这一发展承诺为甚。尽管当代政治立场各异的政策制定者均采纳了相似的叙事说辞，但总体而言，他们似乎鲜少反思过往的现实语境。
本文以三家国家级博物馆的参观人次为研究核心，具体包括大英博物馆（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）），选取两个时间跨度展开分析：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。本文对上述机构及其他同类博物馆的参观数据进行剖析，以验证其是否切实兑现了"面向大众"的承诺，并审视了公立博物馆无论在过往还是当下，对其目标受众的承诺落实情况。