One would hardly expect former president Barack Obama to have links with Guildford’s Watts Gallery. Yet the former was inspired by the collection of the latter to enter politics, and ultimately to take up the most powerful office in the world.
Hope, the piece which inspired Obama, was painted in 1886 by George Frederic Watts. It depicts a girl, blindfolded and playing the singular string that remains on her lyre. A star above her is just visible. There is perhaps no better painting to define the museum’s current state.
Alistair Burtenshaw, Watts director, agrees: “There could hardly be a more appropriate painting for these times.”
It is as yet unclear when the museum will reopen. For house museums such as these, the future is particularly murky – prior to lockdown the bulk of funding came from private viewings, a direct result of the 2008 recession which saw a dramatic reduction in government arts funding.
The digital sphere is of more importance now than ever before. “It’s been a complete change of gear for us in that respect,” considers Burtenshaw.
“But what is fascinating is that, during lockdown, it has been the smaller organisations who are doing the interesting things. We can be nimble and agile in a way that a larger museum might not. Is that because decision-making can be simplified? Perhaps.
He concludes: “All I know is that we are only going to be able to survive if we are bold about our future – bold in imagining what the new world could be.”
