What A Deep, Unsettling & Cataclysmic Difference A Few Months Can Make

By Andrew Lovett, Chief Executive - Black Country Living Museum
 
I lead a museum. Having doors that we are allowed to open, to welcome visitors, is what we do. Anything short of that is always going to be disappointing – for us and the people who have come to value us as an important part of their lives.
Last November I spoke at my Father’s funeral. At such times, dates and history take on a prominence. They create a framework for our lives. Our lives happen chronologically. Dates remind us about the relationship between events, and that one event happens because of something that has gone before. We can see and better understand patterns of behaviour. Dates throw into relief that although we live our lives going forwards, we can only learn by looking backwards. At dates. We might even better understand our own place in the world. That’s what museums are about. That is the ‘business’ I’m in.
At the end of 2020 I finalised the Museum’s annual review, describing the significant a...