大象传媒

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for 大象传媒 Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be finding answers to the question 鈥榃hat are Museums For in 2022鈥�.

Today he's in Northern Ireland, where the National Museum have chosen an object that illustrates both the country's resurgent film and television industry and the way wit and comedy can undercut division. It's a blackboard from the Channel 4 comedy series Derry Girls. The board was used in an episode in which the eponymous girls were attending a 'peace camp' with boys from a nearby Protestant School. When invited to fill two blackboards, one with similarities and the other with differences between Protestants and Catholics, the similarities board remains almost entirely empty. But the differences board, now in the Museum, is completely covered with ideas ranging from the quietly perceptive to the utterly ludicrous. Do Protestants really keep their toasters in the cupboard? The 大象传媒's former Northern Ireland correspondent Denis Murray is on hand to guide Neil through the comedy and tragedy.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He鈥檒l be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.鈥�