CAG on museums: The Cuming Museum fire and protecting collections

Last week a very unfortunate incident occurred at the Cuming Museum in Southwark. There was a fire that destroyed the roof of the Cuming Museum, and two of the three displays. Only a total of 1% of the museum’s collection is on display, but there is possibly also a lot of water damage to the collections that were in storage.

The British Museum had objects on loan to the Cuming at the time of the fire. There were two glazed stoneware ‘Wally birds’ made by the Martin Brothers in 1890 on loan for the temporary exhibition Birds, Beast, and Beyond: The ceramic artistry of the Martin brothers in the Arts and Crafts period. Though the condition of the loaned stoneware birds is still being reported as unknown, these incidents have really brought to light the importance of insuring objects and the safety of museum premises.

At the moment, I’m helping with an exhibition going up in the Bloomberg Gallery London in collaboration with the Shipley Art Gallery. The display of the work of a British contemporary artist and collections from the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums will:

‘…engage visitors with new ways of presenting and looking at both the historical and the commonplace, posing a fresh and innovative way of interpreting ethnographic collections.’

Valuating the objects going on loan from our ethnographic collections has been really difficult and the task has come at very short notice.

Fijian staff

Tongan headrest

I have had to quickly do the best I can to valuate objects with a very rich collection history that are important to the community of the North. Insuring objects for loan can always be fraught with more than a few concerns for the safety of collections, and the Cuming Museum incident really puts the process into perspective.

African stool/headrest

Model Northwest Coast totem pole