2. MARCOTEÓRICO
2.1. Antecedentes Teóricos de la Investigación
2.1.3. Derecho Premial y su relación con la Terminación Anticipada
In 1953 the first museum about a specific sport, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Museum opened at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.74 The beginnings of the
72 Wikipedia. Dixie Dean. Online. Date unknown. Accessed March 31st 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Dean; 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.
73 Ibid.
74 Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). What is MCC? London: MCC. Date unknown. Accessed June 1st 2014.
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museum’s collection started in 1864 when the club started to collect for the “benefit of its members”.75 The current museum curator, Adam Chadwick, argues that private individuals were hugely important to the establishment of the museum because it was largely objects collected and donated by private individuals which formed the museum’s collection both at the start and in subsequent years.76 Chadwick touches on a significant issue in terms of sport in museums in relation to the creation of the MCC Museum and argues that private collectors are often considered by the museum sector with contempt, mainly because they are able to pay more for items than public institutions and subsequently prevent the public from accessing these objects, which presents a significant concern.77 However, as Chadwick states, had it not been for these collectors, the MCC Museum would not exist today. Chadwick asserts that the decision to create the MCC Museum was made because of a lack of space in the original storage place of the collection, rather than a specific intention on the part of the club to create a museum. This demonstrates that the move to create a museum was a decision necessitated by the circumstances of the club. As Chadwick states, the collections:
had grown too large for the other buildings at Lord’s and it was decided to convert an old rackets court which had been damaged during the war. It was consecrated as a memorial to the cricketers who have died in conflicts.78
Although it is likely that the other sporting exhibitions taking place at this time provided confidence to the MCC that the creation of a museum was possible, it is likely that had no other activity concerning sport in museums taken place in England, the MCC Museum would still have been established at the same time and in the same place.
The initial funding for the museum, along with its day to day running costs, was funded directly by the MCC. This demonstrates that the sports club had recognised an importance in the collections and were ready and able to invest directly in the
75 Chadwick, A. Curator. MCC Museum, Lords. Response to author’s survey. April 1st 2012.
76 Chadwick, A. A Portrait of Lords: 200 Years of Cricket History. London: Scala Arts and Heritage Ltd.
2013. pp.18-19.
77 Ibid.
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protection and display of the objects. Although the creation of the museum was not a strategic decision, the club could have chosen to dispose of the objects once space became limited, instead they took the decision to preserve and display them. The fact that funding came directly, and only from the MCC also demonstrates that there was no wider input from the worlds of art or culture. This potentially had a damaging effect on the methodology used to curate the museum and Chadwick (2013) asserts that, until recently, the museum had held a long tradition of ill-disciplined collecting policies and a concentration on linear chronological displays “focusing on the objects and artworks…as illustrations of history” rather than placing the collections within a wider, relevant social context which narrates the story of the past, present and future.79 This also reveals that the lessons learnt from Football and the Fine Arts in terms of appealing to audiences and ensuring relevance to individuals were either unknown or unheeded. That said, in terms of the MCC Museum the need to appeal to an audience was almost non-existence. The museums’ place as part of the fabric of Lords Cricket Ground ensured a constant high turnover of visitors.80 The visitors to the museum visit Lords because it is a place of sporting pilgrimage. The museum is a natural place to explore the history of the sport that many visitors love and cherish. To them, the museum already appeals personally. This demonstrates that sport is a directly relevant subject matter for museum activity primarily because it appeals to the individual on an almost spiritual level. As discussed in chapter two, if museums are about illustrating the human passage of time, then a discussion of sport and how it relates to different people must be relevant. In the case of the MCC Museum, then, the establishment of the museum had been almost coincidental in time and nature to other sporting exhibitions taking place in England. The museum itself continued the tradition of depicting sporting glory, rather than a discussion of sport in a wider context as was beginning to develop in regional museums as a result of Football and the Fine Arts. However, the nature of sport, and the location of the MCC Museum, meant that its audience appeal was no less for this traditional approach, and the museum is still thriving at the time of writing. In addition, although funding had been forthcoming
79 Chadwick, A. A Portrait of Lords: 200 Years of Cricket History. London: Scala Arts and Heritage Ltd.
2013. pp.18-19.
80LordsCricket Ground is considered to be the home of cricket and attracts significant amounts of
people both for matches as a pilgrimage to the home of the game. Marylebone Cricket Club. The Three Lords Grounds. Online. Date unknown. Accessed March 31st 2014. http://www.lords.org/history/lords-
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from the arts world to support the touring exhibition, the MCC Museum was funded solely by the sport itself. Whether this was out of choice on the part of the MCC, a lack of awareness of the potential funding sources in the arts world from which it could draw, or out of a lack of wiliness on the part of arts funder is difficult to determine.
By the end of 1953 then, sport as a subject for museums was gradually beginning to gather momentum with museum curators, sports clubs, and audiences alike. Physick (2013) though, states that the art world itself did not feel the same warmth towards sport and art and “recoiled” from the subject matter.81 However, the examples Physick gives of reviews and reports from the day, do not vehemently reflect this point. Perhaps there were instances of art critics failing to recognise the relevance of sport to art and vice versa. What is clear, however, is that the exhibition of sporting material in museums post-1953 was sparse. There is evidence of ad hoc exhibitions taking place in non-museum venues, such as the 1956 Exhibition of Sporting Trophies held at the Café Anglais, London which included the major sporting trophies for English football, the FA Cup, and the major sporting trophy for English cricket, The Ashes as illustrated at figure 8.82
81 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.235.
82 The Café Anglais was a well-known fashionable night-spot . Brennan, M., Cloonan, M., Frith, S., and
Webster, E. The History of Live Music in Britain. Volume 1. 1950 – 1967. Farnham : Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 2013. p.19.
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Figure 8:Exhibition of Sporting Trophies – Café Anglais. 1956.
Source: Press Association Images.83
However, these exhibitions reverted to focus on the objects associated with the winning elements of sport and failed to learn from the lessons of locality and relevance shown in Football and the Fine Arts. The records of sport in museums between the late 1950s and the 1980s are sporadic at best. This partly suggests that limited activity was taking place, but also that little interest was held in the sport in museum programmes which did take place. The next section will therefore explore the evidence that exists of sport in museums between the late 1950s and the 1980s.