Despite increased funding, many Irish museums offer little to excite the visitor, but there's no need for them to be stuck in the past, writes Brian O'Connell
Friday morning in mid-December is perhaps not the best time to wander into a museum in the west of Ireland.
Yet, even allowing for the time of year, Galway City Museum is a bleak spot. Inside the main door, the empty Muse cafe, which was recently forced to close its doors due to lack of business, adds to the deserted feel. Outside, the lack of street signage guiding tourists to the new museum doesn't help either. Aside from a polite hello, staff members are slow to elaborate on the museum's contents or offer even a basic introduction to what's on offer. When asked if a map or a quick guide of the building and its collection is available, one staff member explains: "Because admission is free, this is a self-guide museum."
Aside from myself, only one other visitor wanders through the building - an American tourist who is looking distinctly unimpressed. "It feels like it's still being set up," he says, before heading for the exit. There's no reason why Galway City Museum shouldn't already be "set up". Costing in the region of €10 million, the facility has been operating fully since April of last year and has running costs of €550,000 a year, paid for by the local authority.
Instead of housing interesting and relevant items of cultural significance, displayed in an imaginative and engaging manner, much of the exhibition and wall space is taken over with large information posters containing paragraph after paragraph of historical facts. Actual exhibits are in short supply. Titles of exhibitions are relayed through A4-sized photocopied pages taped onto walls and doors. For the most part, the layout is confusing and illogical. In one instance, to the left of the main entrance, a large white dress costume and a goat's head model is located in the middle of the floor. Yet, no information seems to be provided to explain what the visitor is looking at, or its significance.
There have been problems with it's suitability. Last August, the National Museum reversed a decision to lend an early 19th century Claddagh cloak to the institution because it was feared that ultraviolet light could damage the artefact. For an area steeped in the Claddagh tradition, the recall was an embarrassment.
Galway City Councillor Pádraig Conneely has been a vociferous critic of the latest addition to Galway's cultural make-up since it opened its doors. One of his criticisms is the relocation of a statue of Pádraic Ó Conaire, previously situated in Eyre Square and now housed in the main foyer of the museum.
Conneely's ire was provoked last year when a plan to charge admission to the museum was floated. "People won't even come in here for free," he says, "and they wanted to charge €5 to see a statue which generations of Galway people and tourists had seen for free all their lives. I wouldn't mind if there was something else here worth seeing, but there isn't."
The problem, says Conneely, goes back to the fact that the building was never meant to be a museum in the first place. "They didn't seem to get this place right from the very beginning," he says. "It was meant to be a cultural centre, but then someone got the bright idea to turn it into a museum. I've seen museums all around the country and this is not a museum."
Breandán Ó hEaghra, deputy director of Galway City Museum, claims its first season was a relative success and that further improvements are planned. As well as adding to the displays, "We also have a significant programme of workshops, lectures, debates and children's activities. It is unfair to judge a fledgling museum to the standards of more established museums, but we are very positive about the future of Galway City Museum and confident that we can become one of the best municipal museums in the country in the coming years."
Ó hEaghra is also "surprised" that a member of staff would call it a "self-guide" museum, as guided tours are available.
THE SITUATION IN the west prompts a wider question: is Galway indicative of a larger malaise at the heart of Ireland's cultural sector? At a time when museums internationally have had to evolve rapidly in order to attract significant visitor numbers, have Ireland's museums kept up? The recent news that the Natural History Museum may be closed for four years has raised eyebrows, with some claiming it sends out all the wrong messages. Elsewhere, local authority museums have been slow to embrace new technologies, with many still reliant on the financial goodwill of their local authorities to keep afloat.
So, how do Ireland's institutions compare with their international counterparts? Academic Pat Cooke admits there are challenges for Ireland's museums, but says that some have already been quick to adapt and innovate in line with visitor expectations. "In general, the changes required have to do with museums consulting better with the public, finding out what people are genuinely interested in and putting on exhibitions that mean something to people," he says.
Cooke highlights the Foynes Flying Boat Museum and the GAA Museum at Croke Park as examples of how Ireland's museum sector has got it right. Others, he feels, are still too loyal to their archeological collections - with case after case of axes and flintheads doing little to inspire a new generation of visitors.
"The archeological mindset is the hardest one to crack," says Cooke. "Like it or not, 90 per cent of people couldn't care less about axeheads. Museums need other types of mindsets, other than purely archeological, to enable people connect on various levels."
When it comes to museum development, Ireland has almost always adapted to international experience, albeit at our own pace. For example, museum guides were first introduced in New York at the turn of the 19th century, while the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert in London appointed guides around 1911. Guides weren't appointed in Ireland's National Museum and National Gallery until 1974. The pattern, then, in Ireland is to follow the British example, which in turn often mimics US trends.
Ireland's institutions were decidedly slow to evolve in the 20th century, mainly due to a lack of funding. Since then, much funding has been made available, and there have been some noticeable improvements around the country. But are we able to keep up? At the New York Natural History Museum, for example, kids can bed down for the night with a 65-million-year-old T.Rex, or a 94ft (28.6 metre) whale, during one of the institution's regularly organised sleepovers. Similarly, the Science Museum in London often transforms into a boutique hotel for kids, with special night-time screenings and drawing competitions.
NEITHER MUSEUM IS that unique. From Bradford to New Zealand, Germany to Sydney, nights at the museums have become commonplace, in an effort get kids interested at a young age. Culture Night 2007 in Dublin, held last September, in which 82 cultural venues opened their doors till 10pm, was a step in the right direction - yet, would any of our institutions be open to having hordes of excited kids bedding down among their precious exhibitions for the night?
While Pat Cooke agrees Ireland's institutions need to change, he is also wary of too much change, particularly when it comes to incorporating digital technologies into our age-old institutions. "Kids are surrounded by 2-D images these days, from Gameboys to video screens," he says. "So when you present them with a 3-D object, and they realise how wonderful it is to sit and stare and think about it, I don't see a need to filter that process with too much technology. It's a magical experience as it stands."
At the New York Metropolitan Museum, the approach is somewhat different; staff estimate that about 15 million people a year visit the museum without ever setting foot inside the premises. The website, www.metmuseum.org, provides a different view of the interior of the museum every day of the week, and three times more visitors access the museum online as physically pass through the doors. The website includes historical information, activities for children, and opportunities to purchase items from the museum shop. As well as becoming vital sources of information and resource for many American museums, sophisticated websites are also providing an important source of revenue funding, as visitors have the option to choose to become members online.
Nik Honeysett, manager of web services for the John Paul Getty Trust, dismisses the notion that museums should be wary of using technological interfaces. "If you want to keep capturing today's audience you have to up the ante," he says. In 2006, the Trust redesigned its site, www.getty.edu, and now captures about 10.5 million visitors a year, compared with 1.2 million who visit in person. Other museums are offering visitors the opportunity to host blogs on their websites, view interactive timelines, or download imaginative resource packs and teaching aids.
Museums, it seems, can't afford to remain stuck in the past.