Featured Image: Screenshot from Amgueddfa Cymru’s Blaschka Glass on YouTube
When lockdown first hit the UK in early 2020, the cultural and creative industries had to pause their operations. All of a sudden a trip to the cinema or going to a concert seemed a lifetime ago. Not only did the consumers miss these industries, but the establishments started to struggle without their visitors.
A cultural crisis
In the museums sector alone, six in ten establishments were concerned about surviving the pandemic. The director of Art Fund discusses:
“We are now seeing well-known and much-loved museums facing mothballing or permanent closure”
Jenny Waldman
This is saddening news for those like me who think of museums as symbolic of culture.
So when I recently came across National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru)’s impressive video exhibition of Blaschka Glass, my hope was restored:
Uploaded to their YouTube channel in March 2019, the 40-minute long video showcases stunning rotating footage of the Blashcka Glass models. It seemed ingenious to me; a virtual exhibition one whole year before we would become reliant on digital technology to keep us connected to art.
National Museum Wales describes the exhibition as ‘beautifully detailed glass models of bizarre sea creatures’ created by Leopola Blaschka and his son Rudolf in the late 19th century. I was disappointed that I had to seek this information elsewhere because it wasn’t provided in the video. For me, this brought the quality of the exhibition down as I yearned to experience it as if I saw the sculptures in person.
My disappointment was quickly rectified by the outstanding filmography. The montage of each sculpture displayed every detail, and because it was a video I could easily pause for more observation time. I also appreciated the use of light shining through some of the models, particularly the ‘Sea Sponge’. This showed off the textures of the models which I otherwise wouldn’t have spotted in this video format.
A digital future for the arts?
Other establishments have since followed in National Museum Wales’ footsteps, with COVID-19 creating a need to digitally adjust. National Theatre At Home was a success during the peak of lockdown in the Spring of 2020. From Jane Eyre to Frankenstein, millions of viewers accessed their favourite performances from their homes.
In the wake of the pandemic in March 2020, UK theatres experienced a 92% drop in ticket sales, and there was an overall projected £77 billion revenue drop in the UK’s creative industries in 2020. Digital technology has therefore proven to be a life-saver for the arts, as National Museum Wales continued to demonstrate:
It’s clear that the cyberspace is fundamental for museums’ engagement. After all, the Natural History Museum alone reaches more people via social media in a month than the number of in-person visits in a year. Interestingly though, in 2019 only 34% of creative and cultural industries in the UK were using YouTube to publish videos. Perhaps the hesitation to make cultural products freely available goes back to an understanding of them being considered ‘high culture’ and deserving exclusive access.
There’s no doubt that attitudes are now changing. Without providing digital access for consumers, these industries would have collapsed under the weight of the pandemic. The Welsh Government’s Art, Culture & Sport Division have even offered a ‘Transformation Capital Grant’ to help fund museums, libraries, and archives extend their operations. This makes it easier for these establishments to move their operations online for consumers to access.
It appears to me that National Museum Wales was ahead of its time with the Blaschka Glass exhibition. This breath-taking video might just be a glance at the inevitable digital future of museums.
CREATIVE CONVERSATION 