| Critics attack Rings exhibition
18 September 2003
Britain's intelligentsia have dismissed the record-breaking Lord of the Rings exhibition at London's Science Museum as a "PR stunt" at the expense of more serious exhibits.
The exhibition – developed by the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, and opened in London on Tuesday – has already smashed attendance records for the British museum.
About 19,000 tickets, costing up to NZ$32.80, had been pre-booked – more than any of the museum's previous paying exhibitions. About 260,000 people are expected to see the show before it closes on January 11.
The exhibition broke attendance records at Te Papa this year, being seen by about 220,000 people.
But Institute of Contemporary Arts former chairman Ivan Massow attacked the show in British newspaper The Independent. "It's a PR stunt and the kind of things that make these great institutions simply PR halls. When the Government doesn't properly invest in culture and art and museums for the sciences, then our institutions are forced to turn to commercialism and lose the very essence of what art and science is trying to achieve."
Former Glasgow museums director Julian Spalding said there was no legitimate reason for a publicly funded museum to put on a show simply to increase visitors.
"They're just making virtue of a commercial activity. The Versace show (at Te Papa in 2001 and London's Victoria and Albert Museum last year) and this show are just trade shows."
However, National Arts Collections Fund director David Barrie acknowledged publicly funded museums were pressed to attract the widest possible audience. British Association for the Advancement of Science spokeswoman Jill Nelson said science museums had to attract new audiences, and The Lord of the Rings had that appeal.
Science Museum head Jon Tucker said the exhibition perfectly fitted what his museum was about. "It's absolutely packed with insights into the various technologies of the film-making industry and some of the technology is absolutely ground-breaking."
Te Papa spokesman Paul Brewer, in London for the opening, rejected the criticism. Museums around the world had traditionally catered for only a very small sector of the population but were trying to become more accessible, he said.
"The Lord of the Rings exhibition taps into a very big part of pop culture and is a very intelligent look at how technology is used in a very imaginative way . . . and how that can be used in an extraordinarily complex film product. That's why the science museums are so keen to have it."
The exhibition moves to science museums in Singapore, Boston and Sydney next year. | |
