Pledges requested to save the Theatre Museum

[Denis Salter]

From:

Ian Herbert

Co-convenor, Guardians

 

(All and any offers of support/help can come to me, 

ian at herbertknott.com, or to office at theatremuseumguardians.org.uk )

 

We are still collecting voices at www.theatremuseumguardiansd.org.uk, but will soon be seeking pledges there.

 

 

 

Guardians of the THEATRE MUSEUM

Report 26 January

Phase Two - are you still with us?

We need pledges for £600,000 a year 

- the first £10,000 is already there

Since the closure of the Museum various members of the steering committee have met interested bodies and found considerable continuing support for the campaign. Ian Herbert discussed the situation in depth with Mark Jones, Director of the V&A. Ian and John Levitt, with Jo Weir of the Covent Garden Community Association, met both with the landlords, Capital and Counties, and with representatives of Westminster City Council. Encouraged by these discussions, the Steering Committee propose that we now go forward to Phase Two of the campaign,  actual fundraising. There is very little time before the V&A hand back the lease on Russell Street, and we are not formally constituted, so the proposal is that we seek pledges of financial support immediately. If sufficient support arrives quickly, we can then set up formal means to redeem those pledges and begin serious discussion with the V&A on how to proceed.

 

We therefore invite all supporting organisations to a General Meeting, to be held in The Actors Centre's Tristan Bates Theatre, Tower Street, WC2 on Wednesday February 7 from 2.30 -5pm. Here we will hope to gain concrete support from you all to this next step. A draft of a fundraising leaflet has been prepared and follows this introduction. It has yet to be properly laid out, and the nature of the pledge form that is to be a part of it is still being worked out, but what you see here will, we hope, enable you to reflect on the thinking behind the fundraising campaign and give your advice - and support - at the meeting. 

 

Phase Two is based on the acceptance that we have no money for professional fundraising and have to improvise around the very limited resources we do have - and the limited time. At the same time as seeking pledges for the £600,000 annual contribution which the Guardians will be offering to the Theatre Museum's running costs (the amount the Royal Opera House would have put into the failed rescue plan), we would try to find larger, philanthropic donors who might fund the capital sums that would be needed to make the scheme really work.

The bandwagon is beginning to roll: at today's Annual Party given by The Stage newspaper, Managing Director Catherine Comerford pledged £10,000 for each of the next two years to the campaign. We hope that The Stage's example will be followed by many of those present, as well as by you, our supporting organisations.

If you can't come, please let us have your view of Phase Two, and if possible your pledge. The V&A made great play with the misleading idea that 'the luvvies won't pay'. Apart from the fact that this is like asking archaeologists to fund the British Museum, in fact nobody asked the 'luvvies'. Now we've been asked - and the pledges are rolling in. We look forward to receiving yours, large or small.

 

Ian Herbert, John Levitt

Co-convenors

ian at herbertknott.com

020 8737 8489

johnjlevitt at blueyonder.co.uk

020 7916 9239

 

Leaflet draft follows:

 




London's Theatre Museum - 

Something Worth Saving 

Re-born with YOUR help as Theatreland HQ, the Theatre Museum's Russell Street building could do all this:

 

Street Level (5,000 square feet)

·                     An inviting, well lit exterior, with Theatreland HQ signage

·                     Theatre Museum staff in costume to welcome you at the door

·                     A café and drop-in centre offering advice on theatre in and out of London - what are the must-see shows? How do you get there?

·                     A place to book theatre tickets, perhaps half price as in Leicester Square and Canary Wharf, certainly without criminal mark-ups

·                     A shop selling performing arts books, CDs, posters, show souvenirs and theatre memorabilia *

·                     Bright, changing, topical exhibitions on a small scale*

·                     Outdoor performances in a clean, well-lit, pedestrianised street

Basement Level (30,000 square feet)

·                     The Theatre Museum, Britain's National Museum of Performing Arts: permanent and temporary exhibitions based on its world-class collection*

·                     Escorted tours and activity sessions, for theatregoers and tourists, schools and colleges, led by experienced animateurs*

·                     Daily demonstrations, performances, talks and educational events in the 80-seater Studio Theatre - theatre comes alive*

·                     Evening performances from the Fringe, late-night cabaret from new groups and established stars*

·                     A chance to meet visiting celebrities, who would give their time to appear daily and talk about their work in progress

·                     Screenings from the National Video Archive of Performance*

·                     Talks and lectures, meetings and corporate entertainment events in the magnificent Paintings Gallery, home of the Somerset Maugham Collection of great theatrical paintings*

·                     Special events for the Friends of the Theatre Museum, using all these resources

 

*    And all these activities are already happening!




 

 

London's Theatre Museum - 

Something Worth Saving 

YOU CAN HELP!

Make your pledge now - large or small 

 

Set up after a fifty year campaign, London's Theatre Museum holds one of the world's finest collections of material on the performing arts. It is administered as a department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which for reasons of economy wants to close it as an independent attraction and relocate it to a few of its own galleries. If this happens there will be no public access to the Theatre Museum collections for at least two years, possibly ten - and no museum in Theatreland for evermore

The Theatre Museum consists of two parts, a library and research archive in Blyth House, Olympia, and the Museum itself, a centre for exhibition, education and entertainment in the heart of London's Theatreland, where in 2005, according to Visit London, the 12.1 million customers for London's West End theatres spent £375 million on tickets alone

In spite of years of under-investment, the Museum is one of the UK's most popular, attracting more visitors than the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool or Kenwood House in London. Visits in 2004 topped 220,000, more per square foot than for the V&A itself. In 2005 it rated 69th of the country's 100 biggest visitor attractions, from Blackpool Pleasure Beach (1) to Swansea's National Waterfront Museum (100). There are nearly 2,000 museums in Britain - the Theatre Museum is one of the foremost. 

One bold attempt was made to save the Theatreland site, when the V&A agreed to join with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in its operation. ROH were to cover half of the Museum's £1.2 million annual running costs, in return for significant use of the premises for their own activities. Not enough financial support was forthcoming and the plan was abandoned.

The Guardians of the Theatre Museum now propose to find that missing £600,000, for the V&A to keep the Museum site open for at least two years, during which it can demonstrate its real value as a visitor attraction, as a focal point for London theatre, and as the showcase for one of the world's finest performing arts collections. If successful, they will seek the capital funding needed to make the Museum truly fit for purpose.

12,000 people registered as Guardians in six weeks. Their messages of support show an amazing strength of feeling on the closure, and come from actors, playwrights, designers, researchers, teachers and, above all, an overwhelming number of members of the public - Londoners and tourists -  who have enjoyed visiting the Theatre Museum and insist that it be kept open.




How will the money be raised?

In today's terms, £600,000 is not a lot of money. It is just over four times the salary of the Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. We propose to raise this sum by seeking pledges for Friends of the Theatre Museum, who will guarantee to support the Museum for at least two years. A possible breakdown might be:

Corporate Friends: 50 businesses and arts organisations 

pledging £10,000 a year                                                                               £500,000

Dear Friends: 500 lovers of theatre pledging £100 a year                           £50,000

Good Friends: 5000 lovers of theatre pledging £20 a year                       £100,000

                                                                                                                     £650,000

Allowing for costs of £50,000 to raise it, this generates the necessary £600,000. Gift Aid and tax relief will produce a substantial extra sum.

 

Who will follow The Stage's inspiring example? 




Here are some supporting Voices

 

London's Theatre Museum - 

Something worth saving 

- and so say all of us!

 

The loss of the Theatre Museum is unthinkable. It is vital that we unite to stop the closure and keep the museum alive.                                                                                              Harry Landis, President, Equity

I would like to see the Theatre Museum remain open on its current site and believe that through working in partnership with other organisations and cultural institutions its programme and collections can be expanded and enhanced for the future.                 

                                                                                        Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London 

The Theatre Museum must be saved - Our Theatre has been, for four hundred years and more, our chief artistic expression and it seems extraordinary to me that we don't as a nation want to celebrate the Theatre's past and present and preserve our heritage. Our theatre is the envy of the world and the Government and the Department of Culture should be fighting to keep the Museum open, not seeking ways to reduce its importance and stature.                                           Sir Peter Hall

As joint chair of the All Party Parliamentary Theatre Group, I am deeply saddened by the closure of the Museum. I fear a valuable and impressive collection will be lost to sight. . London is in very large part about theatre and we need to celebrate its lively history, not just its current vitality                                                                        Peter Luff MP 

I wholeheartedly support the Theatre Museum and deplore the closure of the Russell Street premises as an act of artistic vandalism.                                                                                                                                      Sir Derek Jacobi 

Of course the Theatre Museum must remain in Russell Street and I'm more than happy to add my name to the list of its Guardians. It is a vital institution for all of us, and not only for members of the theatre profession, but also for the theatre-going public. I strongly support any initiative or movement to keep it alive and will ardently join the ranks of those who urge its continuation and the furtherance of its existence.                                   Paul Scofield, CH, CBE 

My support for the Theatre Museum is unqualified. The Museum is the ONLY resource the general public has to consider the 'backstages' that have made British theatre such a vibrant force over the generations Jatinder Verma , Tara Arts

The Theatre Museum is a vital attraction in the heart of the West End, a tangible repository of Britain's extraordinary history of dramatic achievement. Its closure will be a blow to London's tourism as well as everyone's consciousness of the artistic process.                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                   Tracy C. Davis, President, American Society for Theatre Research

 

Pledge your support NOW!

Send the enclosed form to

Guardians of the Theatre Museum

Guild House, St Martin's Lane, WC2

 

 

 

 

www.theatremuseumguardians.org.uk

 

Convenors: Save London's Theatres Campaign (President, Graeme Cruickshank; Chair John Levitt), The Society for Theatre Research (President, Timothy West CBE, Chairman Ian Herbert)

Council: Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE, Ian Albery, Brenda Blethyn OBE, Yvonne Brewster OBE, Nica Burns, Simon Callow CBE, Michael Cashman MEP, Raquel Cassidy, Sir Patrick Cormack, PC MP, Dame Judi Dench CH, Sir Richard Eyre CBE, Viscount Falkland, The Earl of Glasgow DL, Gawn Grainger, Sir Peter Hall CBE, Sir David Hare, Thelma Holt CBE, Sir Derek Jacobi CBE, Sir Eddie Kulukundis, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Joanna Lumley OBE, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Lady Macmillan, Peter O'Toole, Lynn Redgrave OBE, Vanessa Redgrave CBE, Luke Rittner, Lord Rix Kt CBE DL, Paul Scofield CH CBE, Sir Donald Sinden CBE, Jatinder Verma, Zoë Wanamaker CBE, Sir Arnold Wesker FRSL 

Supporters: The Actors' Centre, The Association of British Theatre Technicians, The Association of Lighting Designers, The Association of Personal Managers, BECTU, The British Music Hall Society, The British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, The Critics' Circle, The Drama Association of Wales , Equity, The International Association of Theatre Critics, The International Federation for Theatre Research, The International Society of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts, The Irving Society, The Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection, The Musicians' Union, The National Campaign for the Arts, The Noel Coward Foundation, The Noel Coward Society, The Puppet Centre Trust, St Paul's Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), The Shaw Society, The Society of British Theatre Designers, The Society for Dance Research, The Society of London Theatre, The Stage Management Association, The Standing Conference of University Drama Departments, The Stephen Sondheim Society, The Theatres Trust, The Theatrical Management Association and the Vic-Wells Association

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" . . . we have to accept that our tragedy lies always in our past, that we have to live with our ancestors' folly and suffer for it, just as they, in their turn, suffered, and as we, through our vanity and ignorance, ensure the pain and suffering of our own children. How to correct history, that's the thing."--Robert Fisk
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__________________________________________________
Denis Salter
Professor of Theatre
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke St. West
Montréal, QC
H3A 2T6
Tel (514) 398 6592 / 487 7309 
Fax (514) 398 8146
Computer Fax (309) 294 0444
denis.salter at mcgill.ca 
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