From: Liam Lawless (lawless@ic24.net)
Date: 07/21/01-06:05:32 PM Z
Went to the RPS on Thursday & found it closed. Picked up a leaflet from
outside:
RPS
THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
GALLERIES CLOSED
The RPS’ Octagon Galleries are now permanently closed as part of the Society
’s Five Year Plan to relocate the museum, galleries and offices to new
purpose-built premises in 2003/4.
Our local programme of events and educational activities will continue with
support from Bath & N E Somerset.
The Collection (Photographic, Equipment, Library and Archive) is closed to
researchers, as staff continue to work on the Heritage Lottery funded
Documentation Project. Significant progress has already been made, with over
150,000 items from the Collection now logged on a database and stored in
archival materials to preserve these historic objects for future
generations.
Access to the Collection may be granted in exceptional cases, with priority
given to researchers working on exhibitions or major publications.
Applications should be made to the Collection Manager, in writing.
If you would like to receive more information on our plans and local
programmes on a regular basis, please leave your name, address and email
address below and return this to Reception. The RPS is registered under the
Data Protection Act and will not use your personal information for any
purpose other than the above.
Name
Address
Postcode
e-mail
Comments:
And from Friday's Guardian:
National news
Archives join to make photographic history
Royal society agrees new museum home for world-class collection
Rebecca Smithers
Education correspondent
The Royal Photographic Society and the National Museum of Photography, Film
and Television yesterday announced a new partnership that will make Bradford
the permanent home of one of the most important photographic collections in
the world.
The RPS’s archive, gathered since 1853 and based for 22 years in Bath, is to
be moved to the museum in Bradford, Yorkshire, to be housed alongside the
existing collection there.
This will bring together for the first time some of the oldest and most
important work in the history of photography. The RPS collection is one of
the 10 most important in the world and includes, among some 270,000 images,
790 prints by Roger Fenton, 780 by Julia Margaret Cameron and 600
photographs from the American photo secessionists between 1900 and 1910.
The collection will be based in the museum’s new research facility, which
already contains 3m items, including the world’s earliest surviving
negative, The Lattice Window, taken by William Henry Fox Talbot in August
1835, and the Daily Herald archive. The 10,000 strong RPS membership will be
consulted on future plans and access.
Bradford’s new research centre, which officially launches later this year,
offers a unique “open store” allowing items not on display in the galleries
to be seen by the public and students. Regular public exhibitions will also
take place.
Twenty-three British towns and cities expressed an interest in housing the
archive.
The museum attracted more than 1m visitors in 2000, making it the busiest
outside London.
The collaboration was approved unanimously on Wednesday by the 40 members of
the RPS council. It will give the society greater financial independence to
concentrate on its role as a learned society and an educational charity. The
RPS also plans presences in the midlands, London and the south.
Amanda Nevill, head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and
Television, said: “This is the single most important collaboration in the
history of British photography, bringing together the medium’s two leading
proponents to create an unparalleled force for photography worldwide.’
The RPS president, Raymond Clark, said: “We believe this is fantastic news
for RPS members and the public alike, offering greater access than ever
before to the items that make photography so important to our cultural
heritage.”
Lord Puttnam, a trustee for the museum who helped to broker the partnership,
said: “When two unique centres of excellence work together the results can
only be beneficial. The work that both of these organisations do to promote
the importance of the photographic arts to groups of all ages is invaluable.
I’m delighted by news of the partnership, which can only see both
organisations grow stronger, collectively and individually?"
Latest arts news
guardian.co.uk/artslatest
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