After a tough day at work, it’s nice to feed the soul with some culture, especially as the nights draw in. But even if you’ve paid a handsome fee for your Tate membership, you probably won’t be able to use it during the week. Both London Tates, Modern and Britain, close at 6pm each day.
The National Gallery and newly renovated Portrait Gallery are the same, while the Natural History Museum closes even earlier, at 5.50pm, like the V&A. The beleaguered British Museum shuts up shop at 5pm, perhaps so it can make sure no more items have been stolen. If you have a day job, you’ll have to wait until the weekend to stroll around the masterpieces.
Wouldn’t it be nice if galleries tried to be open when people with a nine-to-five can visit?
That means London’s galleries and museums are in effect closed during the week to those of us who work in the centre of town, and who, one might add, pay taxes towards keeping them free. Instead, they’re filled with tourists and older citizens, many of whom likely got there using a free bus pass (which they may well deserve, but you get the point). While only a miser would begrudge anyone the joys of great art, wouldn’t it be nice if galleries tried a bit harder to be open when people with a nine-to-five can actually visit?
Well done, then, to the Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall, which has recently changed its opening hours. Since the summer, it has started opening at 4pm and closing at 11pm most days. That’s partly because the ICA is cutting edge, catering to conceptual modern art and evening events with strange thumping music. Most of its clientele may not be awake in the mornings. But it also means the space is useful to those who want to use it.
It’s not trivial to change opening hours, of course. Staff may not want to work in the evenings, and it’s only worth doing if people actually turn up.
Many institutions have monthly “lates” events, usually one Friday night per month. They are often packed, even if mostly filled with couples on third dates who aren’t much interested in the art. So could galleries open late even more? The majority of us would probably still go home and watch TV, but it would be nice to know we could enrich ourselves if we wanted to.
