London: picture outpost of Bradford?
The quest to provide London with its own photography museum is coming to a head. The recent announcement that the Royal Photographic Society's archive of 270,000 images is finally to be transferred, from Bath, to Bradford's National Museum of Photography, Film and Television would seem to sound a death knell on the capital's ambitions. But the move may in fact herald a previously undreamed-of alternative-namely of London becoming a prestigious outstation of Bradford.
Boasting 1m visitors a year, the NMPFT is the most-visited museum outside the metropolis. Yet Bradford struggles for recognition as a site for important international exhibitions. When in July the museum came to announce its ?3.75m heritage lottery grant-to create a permanent home in Bradford for the RPS's collection-staff had to hold their press conference in London (the national press couldn't possibly contemplate the reverse journey).
But if Bradford lacks the prestige, London desperately lacks the facilities. The V&A boasts an impressive photography collection, and in 1998 opened the Canon Photography Gallery; but it is not remotely adequate for world-class touring shows. The same goes for the Hayward, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Barbican Centre. It is a problem that much exercises Lord Puttnam, who, along with NMPFT director Amanda Nevill, is a prime mover in the attempt to create a London showcase for Bradford.
Photography's standing as an art form has never been higher. Recent auction prices are on a par with some old masters (the world record is just over ?500,000 for a Gustave Le Grey) and British galleries are proliferating. Puttnam foresees a host of grand photographers "popping their clogs" in the next ten years, which will lead to a once-in-a-lifetime chance to secure the major retrospectives that will follow.
Tate Modern is showing an ever-growing interest in the medium, with a blockbusting history of the documentary photograph next spring. If Puttnam has his way, that could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. He has his eye on Tate Modern's backyard, in particular, the three huge vacant oil drums under the building. "They are a place I'd love. Nicholas Serota quite rightly wants to designate at least one for new, site-specific work, but it would be great to use another for a permanent photography collection and maybe the third for major touring shows."
A second photography venue is also in the pipeline. Armed with a ?3.5m Arts Council grant, the Photographers' Gallery has launched a ?19m capital campaign to develop a new centre of photography in London. Amanda Nevill is emphatic that there is room in London for several new enterprises: "We're not in the business of creating a flagship building-we've got that in Bradford."
Over to you, Sir Nicholas.
Royal Academy bloodlust
Not only has the RA cancelled its winter show in the Sackler Galleries, it is also set to change the Sackler's spring show. Building Dreams: 100 Years of Architectural Drawings from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, was to have contained works by such giants as Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry and Mies van der Rohe and would have run from December to February. The RA has now decided to "devote all its energies" to its mammoth "Aztecs" show, which will run in the main galleries from November to April, while the Sackler Wing remains empty until March 2003.
Aztecs is a terrific risk for the Academy. Cripplingly expensive, it has failed to attract the desired major sponsor, leaving the Mexico Tourist Board to fill the lurch. Even more worrying, by early October its second and third venues, Berlin and Bonn, were still not confirmed, due to the German government's commitment to helping Dresden after the catastrophic floods of August.
At the time of writing, the RA had not announced its spring Sackler show, and was expected to cancel the groundbreaking Adventures of Hamza (on early Mughal paintings), currently at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, in favour of a more crowd-pulling Modigliani show.
What's going on? Financial woes, inevitably. The RA can't afford to put on shows that don't attract sponsorship, which many fear heralds an even greater move towards rank populism. Earlier this year it moved to stem a ?1m deficit, which is why, when the "Aztecs" show was put back by a month, the RA decided to stage a controversial filler, The Galleries Show, in which 20 commercial galleries were each charged ?5,000 or so to participate. The RA covered its costs, but hardly its blushes.
Individual departments were asked to make savings of around ?40,000, before the arrival in October of the new Secretary, Lawton Fitt, from Goldman Sachs, which led to a rash of hastily considered sackings. After this round of human sacrifice, everything now rides on the equally bloodthirsty Aztecs.
Squaring the critics' circle
Let voting commence. Every October at their annual general meeting, the various wings of the critics' circle (dance, opera, theatre, film and so on) put forward a candidate for a special arts award, announced the following April. For three of the past four years the winner has been the theatre section's choice. This year, embarrassed by their success, the theatre critics contemplated not making a nomination. In the end, with impeccable good manners, they put forward a person that couldn't possibly win-the recently and acrimoniously departed RSC boss, Adrian Noble.
