Have a look at this beautifully designed website and exhibition. Surely something Waltham Forest Council should be aspiring to! The exhibition is at Christchurch Gallery, New Zealand until 29 June 2008.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2008.
Another campaign has come to our attention (see this weeks Guardian story), Fight the Height, is opposing council plans to build high rise flats at the top of Walthamstow market. The high rises are part of the same development as a proposed multiscreen cinema - the council gave a subsidy of over £800,000 to developers St Modwen’s to pursue the development of a cinema - despite the land being adjacent to the disused EMD cinema, seriously jeopodising plans for it’s restoration. (See The McGuffin Society’s campaign to save the cinema).
Fight the Height are urging people to voice any concerns on the council’s Draft Interim Planning Policy Framework (IPPF), which is open for consultation only until April 4, they believe that this new plan proposes unlimited housing, does not include infrastructure like extra schools and does not properly plan for a good mix of housing and commercial property.
See their website for more details: www.fighttheheight.co.uk
There are 3 items regarding William Morris Gallery is this week’s paper. See the online edition, pages 9, 15 and 30.
Thanks to all who attended the birthday celebrations on 24 March! It was sad that the gallery was closed on the day, but the lovely mulled wine and birthday cake kept everyone going! Postcards and a giant birthday card were written and sent to the council.
Please join other local people to celebrate William Morris’s birthday on bank holiday Monday 24 March, from 12pm.
Unfortunately the council has closed the gallery that day, so we’ll be laying flowers on the doorstep of the gallery and holding a celebration at the Changing Room Gallery in Lloyds Park the centre of the park, where teas, cakes (as the one above by Scrolls & Shells) and drinks will be available, as well as entertainment.
The BBC did a fantastic job today of covering the petition hand in to the council. Reporter Mike Ramsden opens by covering the sale of Morris’s largest tapestry today at Sotheby’s followed by Martin Adams from Antiscrap speaking about the cuts to the gallery and Cllr Reardon, who was forced to admit that although they want to increase access the gallery will be closed for the entire Easter weekend.
The petition was also covered on BBC London radio today.
(Image from Times Online article)
Today, a giant tapestry woven by William Morris’s workshop and owned by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, is expected to fetch up to £1,000,000 at Sotheby’s. Read the national Guardian’s story.
On the same day residents of Waltham Forest will hand in a petition to the local council, asking them to re-evaluate their recent cuts and downgrading of the famous William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow.
There’s a small demo outside the gallery this morning, prior to the petition hand in this evening. The petition will be presented to a full council meeting tonight at 7.30pm.
Waltham Forest Council’s spin machine is at full throttle, stating that the petition is out of date, unfortunately the petition is still very relevant a year later. The petition asks people to ’support the William Morris Gallery’ and people signing it ’strongly object’ to the council’s plans to drastically reduce the opening hours. The William Morris Gallery was - until January 2008 - a museum which opened full-time with a world renowned Morris curator - it’s now a part-time museum - staff have part-time contracts, and there is no-one at the gallery who is a Morris expert. The petition states ‘access and interpretation are crucial to the success of any museum, and to reduce both is unacceptable’.
We had an email from an American visitor this morning with the following report of a recent visit: “while the volunteers there were nice and tried to be helpful, I seemed to know more about the Gallery and items they used to have available for sale/order than they did. This was disturbing …”
The council have been forced to make some investments - more than their initial savings in fact - on account that there is no-one at the gallery with the skills to fill in funding applications. They have also been forced to open the gallery all day on Thursday’s and Friday’s because - as warned by campaigners - funding authorities have suggested that the meagre opening hours send out the wrong messages about their committment to the service, and the lack of access is prohibitive.
Staff at the gallery were given the opportunity to re-apply for their jobs, most had been reduced to part-time and specialists positions had been reduced to general managerial roles. Expertise and experience seemed to be forgotten by the council.
The petition is sadly still 100% relevant, and local people will carry on campaigning for a service worthy of Morris’s international reputation.
The printed and bound petition with over 11,000 signatures from locals and art world professionals and Morris fans will be presented to the full Council on 20th March.
Please assemble at 6.30pm on the steps of the Council building in Walthamstow, the meeting is at 7.30pm. We have 3 minutes to present the petition. Please forward to friends and family.
Come and raise a glass with Antiscrap to celebrate the Birthday of William Morris:
Easter Monday, 24th March, 12.00 noon-1.00pm outside William Morris Gallery, Forest Road, E.17. See Map. Followed by drinks at the Changing Room cafe in the centre of Lloyds Park.
Bring a flower. Sign the Birthday Card
Eat Birthday cake. Join in the songs
Wear an Easter Hat
Share your campaign with other cultural and neighbourhood campaigners! Please send on this message to friends and family.
The Livesey Museum is one of the UK’s leading children’s museums. Based in Peckham, South London - Southwark Council announced in February that the museum would be closing.
We’d like to extend our sympathies to all who have worked there and visited there, and encourage visitors to this site, to support the campaign to save Southwarks Museum on Facebook, Sign the Petition or Visit the Save the Livesey Blog.
There really needs to be a change in local and national government - as Museums are non statutory services, and with budget cuts, they are extremely vulnerable.
The Demo site published an interesting article about Non Statutory Services and Local Authorities, read it here. http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Change_In_The_Climate.pdf