"Fashion and Style at National Museums Scotland: Acquiring Contemporary Fashion", Georgina Ripley, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Fashion & Textiles, National Museums Scotland

UKRG Event: “Kanwe, Acquirem & Howe LLP!”: Museums, acquisitions and the Law

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Friday 21^st April 2017

Talk: "Fashion and Style at National Museums Scotland: Acquiring Contemporary Fashion", Georgina Ripley, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Fashion & Textiles, National Museums Scotland

In the realm of acquisitions most of us are familiar with gifts, bequests, and purchases from dealers or auction houses. When it comes to expanding a collection of modern fashion, there are other, less travelled avenues into which you can delve, each with their own unique challenges and unusual procedures.

The closing talk of the event was given by Georgina Ripley, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Fashion & Textiles, National Museums Scotland. With a collection of international significance and the third largest collection in the UK, expanding the modern part of the museum’s textile and fashion collection has required a more creative approach in the pursuit of new items.

Going directly to designers is one of the ways in which Georgina has sought out new pieces for the collection. Approaching the designers in this way and developing the relationships with them has led to the museum acquiring better pieces, styling them faithfully with the help of the designers for display. Previously they had more access to watered down versions of catwalk pieces, but by heading directly to the designers they have been able to acquire better examples of their work and enhance the collection. However in some cases the museum has missed potential acquisitions because of the difficulties in contacting the designers, competing for their attention during busy periods in the run up to fashion weeks. Knowing that the designers work to schedules six months in advance and understanding when fashion weeks fall can help to ensure you don’t miss out.

One of the acquisition channels that many of us would be familiar with on a personal rather than professional level are websites such as Ebay and Net-a-Porter. For the acquisition of shoes Net-a-Porter has provided an invaluable resource for the museum, yet it has also presented challenges regarding payments and invoicing, as well as use of images. As a large retail brand it has been difficult to find a suitable contact to help resolve these issues, and required a lot of perseverance on the part of the curators. Ebay, despite their deadlines for bids and the risk of being outbid at the very last minute has also provided some key acquisitions. Items can however be hard to authenticate, and with our increasing emphasis on due diligence this can be a concern for registrars.

Whilst these new means of acquiring items for the collection are still being established the museum’s approach has had to be flexible at times, but it has also been important and possible to uphold the practices and procedures that the registrars strive to maintain. With shipments, for example, designers would pack the items as they would for a customer. The museum found a compromise by sourcing a courier company that also works with museums in order to please both parties. As Georgina concluded, it is important not to lose sight of the museum processes and that the registrars become your best friends at this time, guiding you through what can be done to get these items safely into your care.

Francesca Sidhu, Exhibitions Manager, Victoria and Albert Museum

"Legal Title Law Reforms for Museum Property and Financially Motivated Sales", Professor Janet Ulph, School of Law, University of Leicester

UKRG Event: “Kanwe, Acquirem & Howe LLP!”: Museums, acquisitions and the Law

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Friday 21^st April 2017

Talk: Legal Title Law Reforms for Museum Property and Financially Motivated Sales

Professor Janet Ulph, School of Law, University of Leicester

Janet has been working with DCMS and the Scottish Government on reforms that could make it easier to establish Legal Title for objects in museum collections. “Orphan” objects with little to no documentation are protected under the Interference with Goods Act 1977. There are legal and ethical risks to museums or galleries if they dispose of objects under Possessory Title.

The Prescription and Title to Moveable Property (Scotland) Bill would allow museums to gain Legal Title if the original owner or successor has not made a claim in a 50 year period and cannot be contacted. This period is important as it complies with the Human Rights Act and does not interfere with an individual’s right to their property or possessions. There is strong support for this bill and it may be amended to include clauses for restitution claims, from Holocaust survivors for example.

There is similar consideration for reform in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the Cultural Collections Bill. A 30 year period may be preferable as it is possible that long-serving members of staff would have some memory of the arrival of the objects or possible contacts.

Janet presented examples of financially motivated disposals to illustrate some of the legal and ethical issues. One case study concerned the sale of Henry Moore’s Draped Seated Woman by Tower Hamlets. Purchased by London County Council in 1962, the land the statue was on passed to Greater London Council, then Bromley Council, before finally being sold to Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets lent the sculpture to Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 1997 and made the decision to sell in 2012.  Tower Hamlets had not had Legal Title to Draped Seated Woman; that had remained with Bromley Council as the sculpture was not a permanent fixture on the land. The Judge ruled that Legal Title rested with Tower Hamlets after committing a tort of conversion by lending to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Bromley Council had not registered any objections or claims in the six years following the loan, as required under the Limitation Act 1980, and while the sale was not necessarily ethical, it remained legal.

Janet also presented a case study of the attempted sale by Kirklees Council of Francis Bacon’s Figure Study II (valued at £60 million). The original conditions of the acquisition prevented the council from selling; as a gift from the Contemporary Art Society, any attempts at disposal would result in the Council losing ownership.

The MA Code of Ethics does not prohibit disposals entirely, but there are restrictions. The Royal Academy was permitted to sell a Leonardo da Vinci cartoon (The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Anne) to the National Gallery in 1962 as this kept the work in the public domain and continued to serve long-term public interest. The disposal of the Sekhemka statue by Northampton council in 2014 was not considered to be ethical as it was financially motivated and sold to a private individual outside the UK; Northampton Museum lost its Accredited status in this instance.

Determining Legal and Possessory Title can be more easily resolved if there is supporting documentation. The Prescription and Title to Moveable Property Bill and the Cultural Collections Bill should simplify the process whereby museums and galleries can gain Legal Title over those objects.

Amy Brown, Assistant Registrar, Science Museum

"Acquisitions, exhibitions and getting copyright right", Fredric Saunderson, Intellectual Property Specialist for National Library of Scotland

UKRG Event: “Kanwe, Acquirem & Howe LLP!”: Museums, acquisitions and the Law

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Friday 21^st April 2017

Talk: Acquisitions, exhibitions and getting copyright right Fredric Saunderson, Intellectual Property Specialist for National Library of Scotland (NLS)

Fred introduced us to the NLS collection situated in Edinburgh with a new site opening soon in Glasgow. The collection is comprised of c. 40 million items including eg: 5 million books, 8 million manuscripts as well as c.4000 new items entering the collection a day primarily through the legal deposit scheme. His role at NLS manages policy, understanding and communication around copyright for work in their collections.

Firstly Fred discussed how he has developed the NLS website information on copyright in order to be able to communicate more clearly its application to the collection.  The NLS website page on copyright is a fantastic resource: https://www.nls.uk/copyright

He explained that one of the key areas around understanding copyright is in fact the exceptions – such as “fair dealing” where users need to really understand the parameters around the concept of “fair use”.  

Another of the areas he has been working on with NLS teams is the development of procedures and documentation around new acquisitions and deposits. He shared an example of a detailed flow chart which can be used to ascertain what kind of rights can be secured dependant on the nature of the deposit and the rights the Copyright Holder is willing to assign.

Fig 1. Acquisitions copyright process flow chart.

Photograph from Frederic Saunderson presentation at UKRG event 21 April 2017

Fred then discussed some of the ways in which cultural organisations can enable a richer visitor engagement with material, in particular photography in exhibitions, whilst trying to ensure respect of copyright parameters. His approach gave real food for thought – in September 2016 the NLS changed their exhibition visitor photography messaging style from (a) “no photography” (fig 2 on left) to (b) “Photography encouraged” (fig.2 on right). The new poster style steers the visitor to guidance on copyright, placing the responsibility in the visitor’s hands and signalling a change in attitude to address the changing way people engage whilst trying to clarify the boundaries of image use.

Fig 2. Two visitor photography posters –

LEFT: a) Traditional NLS style “No Photography” messaging

RIGHT: b) New NLS “Photography encouraged” poster messaging

Photograph from Frederic Saunderson presentation at UKRG event 21 April 2017

Fred has also been playing around with possible ideas for further simplification of the messaging (shown below in fig 3.) to make the Do’s and Don’ts even easier to quickly grasp (nb: poster not in use, just an ideas document). He also talked around the approach taken in their Reading Rooms where visitors sign up to similar responsibilities and clear information is shared on camera types for safety of the works etc.

Fig 3. Fred’s ideas around possible development of “Photography encouraged” poster

Photograph from Frederic Saunderson presentation at UKRG event 21 April 2017

There were some very interesting questions in the Q&A – for example one question focussed on the risk of lost income generation if photography is allowed and whilst Fred agreed there was a risk he suggested it would be considered low and it was better to police that risk with clear information on copyright and responsibility. However he also empathised that if an institution decided to go down this route that each exhibition might have to be on a case by case basis dependant on content, lender requirements etc in order to honour agreements.

Eloise Stewart, Exhibitions Manager, National Portrait Gallery

"Update on Museums & Galleries Tax Relief", Alison Turnbull, Head of Research & Development, Museums Galleries Scotland and Janice Slater, Head of Collections Management, National Galleries Scotland

UKRG Event: “Kanwe, Acquirem & Howe LLP!”: Museums, acquisitions and the Law

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Friday 21^st April 2017

Talk: Update on Museums & Galleries Tax Relief, Alison Turnbull, Head of Research & Development, Museums Galleries Scotland and Janice Slater, Head of Collections Management, National Galleries Scotland

Kicking off the Friday afternoon conference was the rather heavy topic of tax incentives, sometimes referred to as “exhibition tax credit”. My first thought was that I was grateful this was the first session not the last! As the session begun it was delivered in a nice double act by Alison and Janice who were part of a consultancy on this incentive before it was released in April 2017 for parliamentary approval. Essentially, this tax scheme allows museums to claim back a percentage of their core exhibition activity costs from HMRC up to a ceiling of £80,000 for non-touring exhibitions and £100,000 for touring exhibitions.

The tone was light and conversational. The two speakers did a brilliant job of breaking down the rather complex topic, extracting the key paragraphs from the full HMRC document and reading out key areas of phrasing. It was an information-heavy talk, but to be honest, there is no other way to deliver detailed outlines on new schemes. Each section was delivered in bitesize chunks with a succinct and insightful PowerPoint summary.

It quickly became clear that much of the information about this new scheme had been rolled out to Heads of Finance and Directors of institutions, but Alison and Janice made it very clear the importance of the implementers and exhibition organisers having a good awareness and knowledge of this scheme. As registrars our thorough documentation skills are a matter of pride, but there was a useful point about extracting the financial data into a useable and easy format to facilitate the application process for colleagues in other departments.

Much of the session was dedicated to discussing ideas around training and information-sharing events across the registration sector. There was a general consensus that these would be welcomed and people were invited to send ideas of how this could work to both Alison (AlisonT@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk) and Janice (jslater@nationalgalleries.org), as well as general questions about the scheme at this stage. The real engagement and commitment from those involved in the initial consultancy seems second-to-none, and the whole room was interested to be involved in any training.

For museum professionals, once the project is rolled out serious work will begin to make the scheme doable for the widest variety of museums across the sector. Although both the scheme and the potential CPD events are in very early stages it seems this is a great potential tool for increasing the affordability and calibre of shows for a broader range of museums and galleries.

Interestingly, this bill has now been deferred at parliament until after the upcoming general election to allow the major parties to offer comments and discuss amendments. I feel much of the museum sector will be watching with baited breath, but what this means in real terms is that we may not see any benefits from the scheme until 2018. So watch this space….!

Joanne Smith, Tate