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"£1.3m boost for National Museum of Scotland"

(13 posts)
  • Started 10 years ago by chdot
  • Latest reply from Morningsider

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    The National Museum of Scotland is being given a £1.3m boost to help fund six new science and technology galleries.

    The development – part of an £80m plan to restore the museum – is being funded by The Wellcome Trust and is set to open in 2016.

    The new galleries will focus on biomedical science, including genetics and prosthetics, and will feature exhibits telling the story of Dolly the sheep among other breakthroughs.

    "

    http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/1-3m-boost-for-national-museum-of-scotland-1-3587154

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. crowriver
    Member

    Hm. Funder of biomedical science funds a wing devoted to biomedical science. What next? Bank funds wing dedicated to money and finance? Fast food giant funds wing devoted to burgers?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. geordiefatbloke
    Member

    Well at least Dolly and the prosthetics has something to do with Scotland, I'm not sure (despite the name) that Macdonalds counts :)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @crowriver

    The funding of museums and galleries is a cesspit.

    The Tate has a partnership with Shell. Sainsburys paid for the extension to the Portrait Gallery.

    Here in Scotchland the Lottery funded the refit of our National Portrait Gallery. There is a mismatch between the clientelles of the Lottery and the NPG that makes this wealth transfer ethically dubious in my view. It's not at all clear to me that the lottery players of Strathclyde got value for money from their investment in a gallery on Edinburgh's Queen Street.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. AKen
    Member

    I'm reminded of the Chewing the Fat sketch about the council arts outreach programme - which consisted of taking paintings in a transit van round the schemes one at a time - with the inside of the van done out like an art gallery.

    "No got the Rubens?"

    "Naw, Rubens is next week, doll."

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @AKen

    That is exactly what should happen.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. acsimpson
    Member

    @IWRATS
    [/I]"It's not at all clear that the lottery players of Strathclyde got value for money from their investment in a gallery on Edinburgh's Queen Street."[I] FTFY

    Isn't that the point of a lottery? Those who enter get very bad value for money.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @acsimpson

    Impossible to say unless you can put an accurate value on the utility of;

    * the excitement experienced between ticket purchase and the draw
    * the feeling of having contributed to 'good causes'

    I would never buy a ticket, but others do. They may well be acting rationally - people sometimes do.

    Overall the effect of the lottery is undoubtedly to move resources from poorer communities to richer ones. I haven't the slightest doubt that was the intention behind it, but if people freely chose to engage in that process....

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. crowriver
    Member

    "taking paintings in a transit van round the schemes one at a time - with the inside of the van done out like an art gallery."

    "That is exactly what should happen."

    Actually... There's a thing called the Travelling Gallery. It's a converted double decker bus, kitted out inside like a gallery. Used to be run by the Scottish Art Council, now by CEC Galleries & Museums (funded by Creative Scotland).

    I have been inside several times: first visit was when it came to Kirkwall Grammar School c. 1984 while I was doing my Higher Art.

    No Rubens, too difficult to insure I'd imagine. Emphasis is on living, mostly Scottish 'contemporary' arts and crafts.*

    Apparently "The gallery is currently in South Ayrshire until 31 Oct 2014."

    Oh and "National Lottery Funded". ;-p

    * - Seems they stopped doing crafts some years ago. Used to, I think. Probably a funding demarcation dispute.

    Addendum: "The Travelling Gallery was established by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) in 1978.."

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. Morningsider
    Member

    "In order to have a better chance for some of the great prizes, some people purchase several tickets, and others, small shares in a greater number. There is not, however, a more certain proposition in mathematics than the more tickets you adventure upon, the more likely you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer you approach this certainty."

    Adam Smith (the Scottish economist, not the Institute)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @crowriver

    National collections aren't insured. The drawbacks to all of these ventures are numerous and include;

    * Poor physical security
    * Poor environment (light, humidity, temperature and vibration)
    * A belief amongst staff that the eyes of poor people will contaminate their precious things
    * A belief amongst staff that they will die if obliged to work anywhere other than the centre of a European capital city

    I'm not exagerating that much.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  12. Greenroofer
    Member

    @Morningsider. This seems always true for Lotto, but for Euromillions, where the odds are about 1 in 76 million, and the jackpot can be over £200million, then potentially if you could buy all possible tickets for £152m, you'd make a profit of a few £10m's.

    (assuming you were the only winner, of course. The galling thing would be to find that you'd shared the jackpot with someone else and that as a result you were £100m out of pocket. That might hurt a bit...)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  13. Morningsider
    Member

    Greenroofer - I'm not sure whether Adam Smith mentions roll-over weeks somewhere else in the book.

    Posted 10 years ago #

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