How the capital's art world went broke on woke

Lectures on social issues instead of just amazing art: no wonder London's major galleries are in crisis

- JJ CHARLESWORTH

London's big public museums and galleries are in crisis. Caught between the aftershocks of the pandemic, the effects of inflation, the costof-living crisis and falls in the number of foreign visitors, the capital's big arts institutions are facing serious financial challenges. In the past two months, the Tate and the Royal Academy have announced serious deficits for their last financial years, of £11 million and £2 million respectively. Insiders are blaming a change in priorities.

Since the pandemic, museum programmes have been characterised by exhibitions that were led by particular social and political agendas. But the question is, are we, the gallery-going public, still interested? Anyone visiting the nation's museums over the past few years can't fail to note that political controversies call them the "culture wars" - have become tangled up in how cultural institutions now operate. From questions of representation and identity politics, to the continuing debates about "decolonisation" of collections, the wrangling over the Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum, not to mention the regular antics of Just Stop Oil protesters and others, museums have changed. They seem to have become places more intent on lecturing audiences about how they should think about issues of social justice than inspiring them with the best art of the past and the present.

With their backs against the wall financially, it may be that museum directors need to think about the gallery-going public in terms of what we find most appealing, regardless of what curators and museum directors think we should see.