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| | Mark Fisher (a former Minister for the Arts) has spent the past four years visiting over six hundred museums and galleries all over the England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For this new book he's picked out his top three hundred and fifty - including three in Staffordshire.
Over a hundred million visits are made by us to museums every year. Mark Fisher wanted to highlight the amazing things that are in these places, and also talk a bit about the history.   Together the museums and galleries provide a portrait of Britain and its inhabitants... here is the evidence of what we value, what we consider beautiful or curious, and what we love 
Mark Fisher MP
Well we've got lots of museums here in Staffordshire, and Mark features some (but not all) of them in this book, inluding the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Hanley, The Spode Museum, and The Gladstone Pottery Museum. With each of these museums, the book has a description of what they contain and a brief history of the actual collection. It builds into quite a comprehensive history of Staffordshire life and industry, and the rest of the country is treated the same.
He interestingly points out that one of the great Staffordshire collections, the one at Wedgwood, is at the moment undisplayed - and he hopes one day it will return to public gaze.
Funding
As well as choosing the creme de la creme of museums, he uses the book to highlight problems with funding.
He says this could mean museums closing or not having their collections updated.
"Britain's Best Museums and Galleries: From the Greatest Collections to the Smallest Curiosities" by Mark Fisher is published by Allen Lane/Penguin 2004 |
