A New Home for a Growing Collection Dawn Ades British Academy - Flipbook - Page 15
‘...the catalyst
embedded in the
brief and vision. It
sparks change. It
sparks wider
ambition and the
means to take on a
new identity. It’s a
tremendous
privilege for us to
unlock that
change.’
SM: It’s not insignificant, the amount
of time we spend with the Committee.
We have to consider impacts – people
moving through spaces – any risks, of
course. It does not just happen. The Liz
Rideal piece, for example, fell into place
slightly by chance, and it looks fabulous
in the new location.
SS: And the ceramics.
DA: A former member of our
committee, Sir Nicholas Goodison was
one of the world experts in
contemporary ceramics; he was
tremendously supportive in what we
needed to do to enhance the building
and its appearance. He felt an ideal place
to have artwork were ceramics on top of
these bookcases. We have been very
lucky in terms of our supporters.
SS: I also think the idea of a
committee feeds in so well to the idea of
the Academy as a collective. The fact
that you have conversations…that lead to
decisions and direction.
DA: Oh, it’s tremendously important.
We all have different specialisations.
They’ve come together in an
extraordinary way.
SS: I’d say in all our culture projects
we have this amazing privilege where
we get to see behind the scenes. Quite
often, in the architectural project, we
feel quite humble in the way that we get
to just unlock potential spatially. But
often, the thing that happens is that the
catalyst embedded in the brief and
vision sparks change. It sparks wider
ambition and the means to take on a new
identity. It’s a tremendous privilege for
us to unlock that change.
Now, we ask, what’s next?
What’s your vision for the Collection,
new spaces, 5-10 year plans?
And, on that, what will Bloomberg
Connects participation unlock for you?
How do you plan to use that?
SM: On Bloomberg, they now almost
have 500 partners with us on their
platform. We are up there with some
amazing Collections - MoMA New York,
NPG… so, it is really exciting for us to be
A New Home for a Growing Collection
a part of it because we are not a gallery..
The ethos behind Bloomberg is that you
can view art wherever you are in the
world on your iphone, you know. So it’s
a great chance for us to show it all, add
interpretation, and show the rooms and
history of the rooms and building as
well.
As we’ve done it, we organized it by
rooms. Featuring the art works. It’s
going to be very exciting to see how that
may bring people to our door.
DA: The building project has created
a desire to foreground the Collection. It
just happened – well, clearly related –
but it really worked.
SS: Yes, that speaks to what we said
about being a catalyst. It’s been great.
In one of our early briefing meetings
about how we are going to use the
spaces, was really centred on how can
we can be different from others spaces
in the building?
It’s tempting to think of them as event
spaces but really we see them as much
more. Centres for research and
presentation… for example, the display
and engagement around research can be
much richer now. It raises the potential.
DA: I think that is key. It’s important
for the research in this institution to be
foregrounded. There is so much to talk
about but let me just conclude by saying,
you’ve done a fantastic job. How do you
think it’s looking?
SS: I’m surprised. It’s more open
than we imagined. We were hopeful,
and we are very pleased. We worried of
course about some things – getting the
details that interface with the historic
fabric just right, like stone details in the
reception because it’s so highly listed.
Would it be out of keeping? But no it
feels really smooth in those transition
and good to be in.
DA: Thank you so much. Are we
finished? We could go on… we could talk
about so much more!
SS: Thank you. Thank you so much.
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