Magazine

Summer 2006

Theatre Museum under threat

Equity campaigns to keep it open and in Covent Garden

As the Summer 2006 edition of the Equity magazine went to press, Equity heard that the future of the Theatre Museum remains uncertain. The Museum, which is owned and administered by the Victoria and Albert Museum, is threatened with having its Covent Garden site closed. Equity and a wide range of other organisations and individuals have been campaigning to keep the Museum in the West End.

The Theatre Museum opened its doors in a building opposite the Royal Opera House in 1988 after a long campaign by theatre practitioners. The Museum houses a unique collection of exhibits, the largest in the world, celebrating hundreds of years of British theatre. In Equity’s view, the museum plays a major role in increasing the enjoyment, understanding and study of the history and the craft and practice of the performing arts in Britain.

When Equity heard of the possibility that the Museum might close it contacted some high-profile members, including Donald Sinden, a former Chair of the Theatre Museum Association, who jointly wrote to The Times calling for the Museum to stay in Covent Garden and for theatre practitioners and Museum users to be consulted on its future. Other signatories were Diana Rigg, Martin Jarvis, Patrick Malahide, Peter Hall, Deborah Findlay, Peter Bowles, Judi Dench, Corin Redgrave, Kika Markham, Jemma Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson, Miriam Margolyes, Harriet Walter and Alex Kingston.

Shocked by the furore, the Victoria and Albert Museum Trustees agreed to a period of consultation which was due to end as this magazine went to press. Equity, together with the Save London’s Theatres Campaign and The Stage, lead the campaign to save the Museum.

In its submission to the Trustees, Equity re-stated its strongly held view that the Theatre Museum should remain in Covent Garden. The union welcomed the proposals to take elements of the collections on tour, called for more investment in the recorded archive of live performances, welcomed an approach from the Royal Opera House for greater involvement in the Museum and called for an investigation of more links between the Museum and the industry, and finally called for a lifting of the ban on the Museum itself raising funds and making sponsorship deals.


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