Whistler: Art & Legacy - Limiting Collections
October 13 2021

Picture: The Hunterian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow's exhibition Whistler: Art & Legacy will be closing at the end of this month. However, the museum are putting on a fascinating panel discussion on 19th October 2021 on the topic of 'Historical limitations on the use of museum collections: the ethics of change'. The inspiration came from the bequest rules surrounding the Hunterian's vast collection of Whistler works, which limit their display to Glasgow only.
The panel will include Dr Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, London, Duncan Dornan, Head of Museums and Collections at Glasgow Life, Dr Grishka Petri, Honorary Research Fellow (University of Glasgow, School of Culture & Creative Arts), Dr Elena Cooper, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, CREATe, University of Glasgow.
One can imagine the panel will represent a majority of those in favour of change, especially as the panel contains representatives of institutions who have successfully overturned rules of bequests in recent times.