Apelación

In 2004 the SHN began to explore the possibility of creating a touring exhibition using the theme of sport to engage museums across the country and increase the understanding of the relevance of sport as a subject for museums.116 _{In 2005 the} announcement that London would host the London 2012 Olympic Games shifted the planning process of the exhibition to one of a general understanding about sporting collections, to a programme in support of the London 2012. OSL aimed to build partnerships across the heritage sectors, develop an understanding about sporting collections and where they were held, support museums and archives in utilising their sporting collections more fully, and engage with local communities by asking “what does sport mean to you?”117 _{These aims demonstrate that the SHN had a clear} understanding about the perceptions towards sport in museums at this time, and had established OSL to address each of these issues. Although not originally set up in reaction to the London 2012, it became one of the key opportunities for the museum sector to respond to the event. Jonathan Edwards, former Olympic champion and member of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), supported this view by stating, at the launch of OSL,that:

This is absolutely the right time for a project like this, because it … makes a personal connection with people and the way that sport has influenced their lives. Whether memorabilia or whether it is memories, sports heritage is part of the fabric of our society and I think understanding where we have come from we can better understand and map the future and make our country a better place. At LOCOG we are really excited about this project and we think that it can make a huge contribution to our Olympiad.118

The author worked with the OSL team to understand more specifically how the programme had been developed, what the limitations were, and what the key

116 _{Mainds, P. Director. River and Rowing Museum. In Conversation with the author. January 20}th _2012. 117 _Ibid.

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successes had been. The author joined regular monitoring meetings conducted by the SHN, was given full access to the raw data gathered by the OSL team to support evaluation of the project, and was able to discuss at length the strengths and weaknesses of the programme with those involved with the delivery and management of OSL. As a result, the author was able to extract relevant information about the effect of OSL on the development of sport in museums in England. The following discussion is drawn from this experience of the programme.

Paul Mainds, the Chair of OSL, outlined three stages of development for OSL Firstly, the launch of the project in 2009, secondly the roll-out of the programme nationally to involve museums across England through the exhibition programme, and finally, “The third stage is, of course, the ‘World’s Greatest Exhibition of Sporting History’ to be held in London in 2012. We are working hard with the details of that”.119 _{This demonstrates} that the SHN had a clear strategic plan for the creation, development and delivery of

OSL. However, it had to be positioned centrally within cultural policy directives to ensure it would meet the criteria to attract external funding to make the programme a reality. The statements given by Mainds demonstrate that OSL was firmly placed within agenda’s that supported cultural policy in general, and more specifically the delivery of the cultural programme attached to London 2012, as discussed further in chapter five. Figure 11 illustrates that the overarching programme objectives of OSL

supported wider policy agendas, such as audience development, education, and tourism, with sporting heritage acting as the central theme.

119 _{Sports Heritage Network. Our Sporting Life, Exhibition Handbook. Date unknown. No longer available}

116 Figure. 11:Our Sporting Life programme aims To stimulate sustainable relationships between local organisations and museums To attract new museum audiences and capitalise on the ability of sports to cross boundaries within communities

To create a flexible, transferable

template which can be replicated throughout the country To develop the sector by encouraging partnerships and networking between museums, libraries and archives To design new education materials and programmes to support schools and encourage young people’s participation To increase opportunities for volunteering in museums and other organisations To raise awareness and a deeper understanding of museums’ own collections To encourage domestic and international tourism

Source: OSL interim report.120

Even with these wider agendas, the SHN found it difficult to secure funding for the programme.121 _{Paul Mainds, founder member of the SHN and chair of OSL, states that} this was more to do with the fact that the theme of the exhibition was about sport, than any other single factor. However, funding for the programme was eventually granted to the SHN by the MLA, although Mainds asserts that this was because of the intervention of the Chief Executive of MLA at the time, Roy Clare. Mainds states that several conversations with other staff at MLA had failed to result in a successful acquisition of funding at any level, and it was largely down to the fact that Clare had a personal interest in sport and could see the link between museums and sport, that the funding was eventually granted. This demonstrates that the perception of sport as a subject for museums was still limited, and by those responsible for funding the museum sector, as recently as 2009. Eventually, Mainds secured £100,000 worth of funding from MLA and this covered the cost of a Project Manager and the costs of creating the touring exhibition. The touring exhibition was made as an off-the-shelf exhibition framework with text panels and cases for objects that tell the story of the nation’s sporting past as illustrated at figure 12.

120 _{King, L. Our Sporting Life Interim Report. 2011. Unpublished, made available to the author.}

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Figure 12:Our Sporting Life exhibition cubes and cases

Source: Image shared with the author by the OSL project team

These panels and cases were loaned out to museums and other venues across the country and organisations which hosted an exhibition had access to this framework and were encouraged to create a second stage to the exhibition with a focus on their own local community. The aim was to develop local partnerships through community engagement that would survive long after the project had finished. Exhibition guidelines and support packs were available to download from the OSL website.122

Although primarily an exhibition about objects, OSL was not intended to be delivered specifically through museum venues. Although this was its core offer, it also welcomed exhibition delivery at diverse venues including airports, leisure centres, and ice-rinks to broaden the audience base of those able to experience the exhibition programme. To illustrate the project in action, an example can be drawn from the partnership developed between Scunthorpe United Football Club and the North East Lincolnshire Museum. The museum service had aimed to develop an exhibition about the football club for many years, but did not have the expertise or collections to fully deliver the project. The football club had wanted to develop an exhibition about itself for many years, but didn’t have the expertise in exhibition development and delivery. The

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opportunity to be involved in OSL led the museum into discussions with the football club, ultimately leading to focus groups, community events and consultations, which informed the local exhibition of their OSL programme.

The total number of exhibitions mounted through OSL was 108 with the average exhibition running for 38 days. This demonstrates that museum services were using

OSL as part of their temporary exhibition programme. This suggests that OSL was seen as a project to be integrated into their broader exhibition programmes, and this level of sporting heritage activity has not been seen previously in England.123 _{The exhibitions} themselves were thematically linked by a series of categories which represent how sport intersects with wider museum collections and objectives. With education, engagement and widening participation high on cultural policy agendas, exhibitions about local sporting heroes were used to engage schools, families and community groups, and although several museums chose to focus on the art or science of sport, the vast majority explored sporting heritage within a local context, either through local sporting activities, local heroes, or local clubs. Geographically, the majority of OSL

exhibitions were held in the South East of England as illustrated at figure 13. This reflects the location of the Project Manager, being based in Henley-on-Thames and therefore located within the South East and most able to secure partnerships in this region.

123 _{The study of Our Sporting Life focuses only on England because in Wales there was a similar project}

entitled Following the Flame (http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/flame/) which ran for the duration of Our Sporting Life. In Scotland, however, there was less engagement with the London 2012 Olympic Games, perhaps due to a disjunction between the capital city, and also because of increased interest in the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow in 2014.

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Figure 13: Geographical spread of Our Sporting Life exhibitions

Source: Shared with the author by the OSL project team

Therefore, OSL succeeded in its aims to work with museums and other organisations nationally to increase the interest in sporting heritage. Chapter eight explores further the specific impact and outcomes related to the programme. As London 2012 drew closer, many museums felt more confident in producing activity which was inspired by the event, whether as part of OSL or not, and the peak of interest in sporting heritage in museums came in 2012 itself with over one hundred and twenty exhibitions specifically focused on the theme of sport. In addition, the establishment of several sport specific museums took place in 2012 including the National Hockey Museum and the British Surfing Museum. It can be considered no coincidence that this increase in interest, and therefore funding for, sport in museums in England was directly related to the fact that London was the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games.

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In parallel to the activity taking place in practice, academic interest in sport in museums was also increasing at this time and texts published in 2011 and 2012 reflect this gathering momentum, for example, Murray Phillips’ (2011) text, Representing the sporting past in museums and halls of fame. The title of Phillip’s book suggests that it will address the broader topic of sport as a theme for museums.124 _{Several chapters go} on to do so successfully, but the typology of sport museums provided by Phillips focuses on sport specific museums and there is little discussion of the how sport is relevant as a museum subject in general.125 _{As a result, Phillips’ text fails to draw the} necessary and timely conclusions that would place sport as a core museum subject. Hill, Moore, and Wood (2012) provide a more rounded picture of sport in museums, although it is still only Moore who focuses on non-sport specific museums in ‘Sport in museums and Museums of Sport’.126 _{The text as a whole aims to demonstrate how} sport in museums addresses wider public agendas. It fails to provide the necessary evidence because of its focus on sport specific museums and its limited reference to sport as a subject for the wider museum sector. Both Phillips’ and Hill, Moore and Woods texts suggest a restricted understanding of the museum sector, its priorities, governing structures, and key delivery programmes and consequently this is reflected in how the subject of sport in museums is handled. For example, the authors do not discuss where sport in museums fits within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) museum funding programme, Renaissance in the Regions, discussed in depth in chapter five.127 _{This was a significant programme which brought in extensive} funding to the museum sector with a specific aim of engaging new audiences. Consequently, it was a prime opportunity for the use of sport to be tested as a subject matter for museums and is directly relevant to the studies of both texts. This lack of understanding of the museum sector therefore has positioned sport as a topic for

124 _{Phillips, M. Representing the Sporting past in Museums and Halls of Fame. New York: Routledge,}

2011.p.6.

125 _{For example O’Neil and Osmond’s chapter depicting the importance of the 1920’s and 30’s race}

horse, Phar Lap, to the Melbourne Museum and its visitors. O’Neill, M. and Osmond, G. ‘A Racehorse in the Museum: Phar Lap and the New Museology.’ pp.29-48, in Representing the Sporting Past in Museums and Halls of Fame. edited by Phillips, M. New York: Routledge. 2011.

126 _{Hill, J., Moore, K., and Wood, J. (Eds) Sport, History and Heritage: An Investigation into the Public} Representation of Sport. 2012.

127 _{Museums Association. Renaissance: MLA Consultation. London: Museums Association. 2008;}

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museums as a separate entity to be studied and discussed in isolation. This isolation continues because evidence that situates sport in museums centrally to wider cultural and museum activity is not forthcoming. Therefore, although there has been a progression in the field of sport in museums, our understanding of the field is still extremely limited.

3.12 Conclusion

The comments of Walter Sparrow in 1922 demonstrate that the concept of sport in museums is not new.128 _{Nearly a century prior to this study, the value of sporting} exhibitions as opportunities to support wider social outcomes were already evident, and these opportunities are demonstrated by non-museum exhibitions, such as the Hutchinson House example of 1933 which was created to support the social improvement of Jewish boys.129 _{The traditional focus of museums on subjects of high} culture is most likely the cause of this lack of interest, and it was not until 1948 that the first sporting exhibition, Sport in Art held at the V&A, was delivered within a museum space. Even then, it was not a traditional museum exhibition, but one hosted only as part of the London 1948 Olympic Games with a focus on the art works of competition winners from amateur artists.130 _{However, Sport in Art marked the} emergence of an interest in sport in museums, and in 1949 the National Gallery of British Pastimes was opened by its founder and owner, Walter Hutchinson.131 Ostensibly, this answered the call of Sparrow’s plea for a national sports museum, even though it was not publically funded, and, in different circumstances could have established a very different perspective of sport in museums than that which we see today. However, in 1951, Hutchinson committed suicide, and in the wake of his tragic death, the collection was broken up, sold, and the gallery closed. This marked the last attempt at a national museum of sport in Britain or England, although it is likely that the National Gallery of British Pastimes had some influence on the decision to open

128 _{Sparrow, W.S. British Sporting Artists from Barlow to Henning. New York : C. Scribner’s Sons.}

1922.p.9.

129 _{British Pathe news reel. “Mr Jardine….speaks at last!” London. 15th May 1933. Accessed June 1}st

2014. http://www.britishpathe.com/video/mr-jardine-speaks-at-last/query/International

130 _{BBC Television Service. Sport in Art exhibition. July 26}th _{1948. Accessed June 1}st _2014.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/olympics_1948/12103.shtml

131 _{Sydney Morning Herald, the. London’s remarkable new gallery of pictures. Tuesday 8}th _{March, 1949.}

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the first museum concerned with a specific sport, the MCC Museum, in 1953, if only by providing the MCC with the confidence that a museum about sport would attract new audiences. The same year also saw the delivery of the Football and the Fine Arts

touring exhibition which established the use of locally relevant objects associated with sport in museum exhibitions succeeded in attracting new and different audiences to local and regional museums across the country.132 _{However, the evidence created} from Football and the Fine Arts seems to have been insufficient to have had any impact on the development of sport in museums in general. Although there were pockets of activity which saw the creation of several sport specific museums and ad hoc sporting exhibitions delivered in museums between 1955 and 1989, it was not until the changing landscape of museums in favour of the representation of the everyday, that the topic of sport began to reappear in museums, with exhibition programmes such as Stuart Clarke’s Homes of Football.133 _{Interest in sport in museums remained constant} during the 1990s and early twenty-first century with a gradual increase in the number of sport specific museums which opened, and more and more non-sport specific museums holding exhibitions about sport. Despite this growing number of examples of sport in museums and sport specific museums then, there is a significantly limited range of literature concerned with the topic of sport in museums.134 _{From Vamplew’s} early paper in 1989, there has been a consistent message given to sporting historians that museums, and not just sport specific museums, offer an unparalleled opportunity by which to investigate the sporting past.135 _{However, at the time of writing there is} still little written discussion about the role and value of sport as a subject matter for museums and, where it does exist, it concentrates on sport specific museums alone.

In addition, in 2003 several museum professionals who worked with sporting collections still felt that there was an attitude towards sport that it was somehow

132 _{Physick, R. The Representation of Association Football in Fine Art in England. A thesis submitted for}

the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy, University of Central Lancashire. April 2013. p.230.

133 _{Brabazon, T. Playing on the Periphery: Sport, Identity and Memory. London:Routledge, 2006. pp.7-}

40.

134 _{Phillips, M. Representing the Sporting past in Museums and Halls of Fame. New York: Routledge,}

2011. p.5.

135 _{Vamplew, W. ‘Australian sports history: a research agenda.’ The International Journal of the History} of Sport 6, no.2 (1989): 252-255. See also Moore, K. ‘Foreword.’ xi-xv. in Representing the Sporting past