Will Gompertz, inventive director on the Barbican arts centre in London, has been appointed the director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in a shock transfer. He replaces Bruce Boucher who retires on the finish of this 12 months after virtually eight years in submit.
Gompertz was appointed director of arts and studying on the Barbican in March 2021, later turning into inventive director. He joined the Barbican from the BBC the place he was arts editor since 2009; previous to that, he was director of Tate Media for seven years. His publications embrace What Are You Trying At? (2012) and Assume Like an Artist (2015).
His programme on the Barbican has included In another way Numerous, an exhibition in The Curve (till 6 August) produced in collaboration with the mind damage charity Headway East. Earlier this 12 months nevertheless he was drawn into an anti-Palestine censorship row when Resolve Collective accused employees on the London arts centre of censoring a chat.
In 2021, the Barbican Centre carried out an intensive employees reorganisation following the publication of a guide that included greater than 100 situations of alleged prejudicial behaviour on the Metropolis of London cultural venue. Gompertz was on the forefront of implementing the organisation’s anti-racism plan, telling The Instances late 2021: “It’s not misplaced on me that I’m a white, middle-aged, middle-class man, nor that I’ve had nice privilege in my life. However I can do one thing with that privilege, assist this establishment grow to be inclusive, numerous and equitable.”
In Might, in an article for The New Statesman, Gompertz was requested: “What’s the best problem dealing with the humanities business as we speak?” He responded: “[…] it must be cancel tradition. The aim of the humanities is to query, problem, mirror and enlighten… [With] the rallying energy of social media, debate is being stifled by self-censorship and worry of disagreeing with the prevailing orthodoxy.”
As soon as the London dwelling of the architect John Soane (1753-1837), the establishment’s eccentric inside, held in affection by many museumgoers, is packed together with his eclectic assortment of sculptures, work and curios (the British architect constructed, lived and labored within the tall, stately buildings that overlook Lincolns Inn Subject for a lot of his life).
The Soane, together with the Geffrye Museum, is without doubt one of the smallest UK nationwide museums with central authorities funding, attracting a report 133,785 guests from 2022 to 2023. In line with the World of Interiors, “guests flock [to the museum] for its architectural rules, its Neoclassical design and the dazzling theatre of its objects.”
When Boucher was appointed in 2016, Man Elliott, the then chair of trustees, stated that “he’s… a revered scholar whose analysis could be very related to our assortment”. In line with the museum’s 2020 annual report, Boucher’s wage was between £80,000 and £85,000; the identical 12 months, grant-in-aid funding from the Division for Digital, Tradition, Media and Sport totalled £1.3m.
Within the 2020-21 annual evaluate, Boucher wrote: “Anticipating a post-Covid local weather of some period, our goal is to reconcile ambition with financially sustainable funding. Whereas the dominant achievement of the earlier decade was the bodily renewal and restoration of the museum by means of the Opening up the Soane venture, we need to be certain that our focus is on how we articulate, talk and promote entry to the museum and its up to date relevance for as we speak’s audiences and as we speak’s world.”
Earlier this 12 months, the drawing room on the museum, the oldest surviving instance of its form, opened to the general public. Inside the tight confines of the drawing workplace, Soane’s draftsmen and apprentices labored with Soane on the designs that formed the neo-classical architectural character of Regency period London.
