Tomorrow the North West Development Agency will reportedly decide whether to the give the go-ahead to a £64m ‘Museum of Liverpool’ at the Pier Head.
After the collapse of the ‘Cloud’ project, a replacement had to be found and National Museums Liverpool (NML) have stepped up to the plate. A replacement ‘had to be’ found because massive capital building projects are what ‘regeneration’ is all about and a skyline-defining piece of architecture on the waterfront is central to Liverpool’s Capital of Culture strategy.
So far, Liverpool regeneration has been marked by huge private development of retail and residential space. To you and me that means the Duke of Westminster has once again cashed the family cheque and grabbed the centre of town for rents. To back this up, ‘luxury flats’ have sprung up everywhere, pushing out poorer people and closing the places they used to hang out. Of course, all of this development has taken place with the total support of a council which wants to provide jobs and which understands that ‘culture’ sells.
But let’s not deceive ourselves. Massive commercial building projects - shopping centres, millionaire penthouse towers - don’t address the real, long-term problems of local people and in fact make those problems more entrenched. Free market development, based on culture or not, increases social divisions and makes corporate control of everyone’s life ever stronger.
Which is why, if a building ‘has to be’ built, a public building is the only supportable option. As public spaces like parks and streets are being taken away from us by a council set on selling the family silver, a public museum on the waterfront would be a rare gain.
NML have said the museum will tell the story of Liverpool’s 800 year history from the 1207 charter to the present. This is an admirable aspiration because there is a lot to tell. As we all know, Liverpool is a great city with a tradition of struggle against oppression as well as rich success in trade and, yes, in culture.
But education, which is what a museum must deliver, is not about the past. It is about using information to make life better for ourselves and for others simultaneously. The local press has said the museum will have displays on merchant houses, working life on the docks, pop culture and migrant life - all worthy subjects. But omission of the phrases ‘slave trade’, ‘colonialism’ and ‘imperialism’ seem to suggest our local journos would rather a museum confined itself to established ideas of what represents Liverpool. This charade cannot go on. The local press has manipulated the identity of Liverpool to its own advantage for too long. Just as we should expect displays documenting stories of poverty in Everton over the last 20 years so we should hear the stories of Liverpool’s immigrant populations.
Education in this country has not yet proved itself capable of delivering the necessary truths to children or adults - truths which would include the knowledge that whatever the problem, racism isn’t the answer, and that the free market is not your friend. Perhaps a new, brave and ambitious ‘Museum of Liverpool’ can find room for these stories.
So far, Liverpool regeneration has been marked by huge private development of retail and residential space. To you and me that means the Duke of Westminster has once again cashed the family cheque and grabbed the centre of town for rents. To back this up, ‘luxury flats’ have sprung up everywhere, pushing out poorer people and closing the places they used to hang out. Of course, all of this development has taken place with the total support of a council which wants to provide jobs and which understands that ‘culture’ sells.
But let’s not deceive ourselves. Massive commercial building projects - shopping centres, millionaire penthouse towers - don’t address the real, long-term problems of local people and in fact make those problems more entrenched. Free market development, based on culture or not, increases social divisions and makes corporate control of everyone’s life ever stronger.
Which is why, if a building ‘has to be’ built, a public building is the only supportable option. As public spaces like parks and streets are being taken away from us by a council set on selling the family silver, a public museum on the waterfront would be a rare gain.
NML have said the museum will tell the story of Liverpool’s 800 year history from the 1207 charter to the present. This is an admirable aspiration because there is a lot to tell. As we all know, Liverpool is a great city with a tradition of struggle against oppression as well as rich success in trade and, yes, in culture.
But education, which is what a museum must deliver, is not about the past. It is about using information to make life better for ourselves and for others simultaneously. The local press has said the museum will have displays on merchant houses, working life on the docks, pop culture and migrant life - all worthy subjects. But omission of the phrases ‘slave trade’, ‘colonialism’ and ‘imperialism’ seem to suggest our local journos would rather a museum confined itself to established ideas of what represents Liverpool. This charade cannot go on. The local press has manipulated the identity of Liverpool to its own advantage for too long. Just as we should expect displays documenting stories of poverty in Everton over the last 20 years so we should hear the stories of Liverpool’s immigrant populations.
Education in this country has not yet proved itself capable of delivering the necessary truths to children or adults - truths which would include the knowledge that whatever the problem, racism isn’t the answer, and that the free market is not your friend. Perhaps a new, brave and ambitious ‘Museum of Liverpool’ can find room for these stories.