St Fagans Museum Have Blanked Life Drawing Wales
Please note the Museum Wales commitment to working with local groups and to expanding commercial use of sites ‘Our income generation will increase through a greater focus on fundraising and commercial activities.’ This is clearly stated in the Strategy 2030 document, which in my opinion is corporate waffle. Museum Wales should have been working to those aims, intuitively, for very many years past and needed not waste public money on developing a glossy plan that is, for the average Joe, common sense and usual practice. Anyways…
I sent this email dated January 25th 2024 to the events department of St Fagans Museum following a series of emails with the museum general staff who in the end pointed me in that direction.
‘Amongst being an aspirant Blue Badge Guide and Mountain Leader delivering tours and guided walks in Wales I also run a Life Drawing group that meets throughout the year, twice a month, in Cardiff.
I was training as a Blue Badge Guide at St Fagans on Tuesday and whilst looking at the Cockpit I thought what a fine location for 'outdoor' art classes, great natural light but with walls on all sides and circular in design, so, art making could take place 'in the round'.
I have been considering marketing several art classes this year that take place outdoors but the weather is the obstacle and the thatch roof of the Cockpit overcomes the bad weather day cancellations whilst not reducing quality daylight levels.
I would therefore like to chat to someone about delivering a series of perhaps three life drawing events, say one in each of June, July and August, that are simply two hours of life drawing in the Cockpit.
There are a few ways to approach this with regards to pricing. I could offer a gently guided tour of the site, a meet and greet and overview, then free time to explore, then cafe time and then the life class or I could just offer the life class, or I could package the life class with food in one of the cafes on site.
Is this something that would interest you, something you would partner with as a summer series of unique events?
My life drawing business does not receive any funding and it is effectively not for profit, with monies earnt being wages for models and whats left being to fund art and web resources and occasional model get togethers. We therefore charge a commercial rate for our life drawing sessions and this is usually £15pp.
I think that this could be an exciting opportunity bringing in new visitors to the museum and creating figurative art in one of its spaces. An exhibition of work could also be considered following the events.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this idea.
Over a month has passed and despite a follow up, there has been no response. This is shameful. A simple yes or no would have been sufficient, the yes including how we would proceed and the no detailing the why would have been better. But, nothing…
Once again ‘the gatekeepers’ limit growth and opportunity rather than doing what they rather wordily profess to do, and that is engagement and innovation. I’ll say it again… Shame on you Museum Wales!
Wait! This was received 11th march 2024:
Good afternoon Andy,
Thank you for your email.
As you may be aware we are currently undergoing a large re-structuring project at Amgueddfa Cymru so we are limited on resources so my apologies for the delay.
Unfortunately we have temporarily suspended proposals for our public programme due to the re-structure. We aren’t able to table your proposal at this stage but please keep us in mind for future proposals if you have ideas and we will hopefully be in a position to consider in the next few months.
Many thanks,
Amgueddfa Cymru events team
And I responded thus:
It will be too late in a few months time. I regard this as a brush off as I cannot believe that all work has stopped because of a restructure. If that is the case then someone senior needs to be dismissed.
You have failed in your remit to engage with the community and to grow commercial use.
Shocking response, but as expected.
Andy Lamb
Life Drawing Wales
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