Today, The British Museum is closed due to strike action. As both an historian of archaeology, who has studied in depth the imperialist archaeology which underpinned the development of the British Museum, its links to empire and colonialism, and as an ex-Front of House employee in a museum, this feels powerful.

The British Museum is a symbol of Britain. It was built as a deliberate symbol of imperial power and its collections were the direct result of imperial power. Archaeology which acted as a form of colonial extraction –archaeological remains and artefacts were extracted from across the world, some as a result of brutal military violence and looting, to be displayed in Britain, as a symbol of British imperial power. The Museum’s neo-imperialist approach to repatriation of artefacts such as the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes is reflective of a Britain which steadfastly refuses to face up to its imperial past. Not to mention the sponsorship of BP, an almost too perfect example of how the arts and culture are used to bolster the reputations of the elite – such as BP who are destroying the planet for profit. If we think about what ‘Britain’ the British museum reflects, then the closure forced by worker solidarity becomes even more powerful.  

These are the same workers who were called in to work in unsafe conditions in a heatwave, workers who are consistently paid under a London Living Wage (this is the reason I quit my museum job, I simply could not afford to live off the wages, and moved back to my parents to continue writing up my PhD thesis, which in my 30s is a tad depressing). It is a sector which has embraced, perhaps more than most, calls for equality, diversity and inclusion, and gains a lot of press coverage out of this, as to put it cynically it all appeals to their target audience of moneyed middle class Guardian reader types. Yet the sector consistently pays terrible wages, with those at the bottom of the hierarchy routinely being paid less than a living wage. It is a sector which is fast becoming a hobby for rich people, as those without the means to work for low pay, to undertake unpaid internships to gain the skills and experience needed for even supposedly ‘entry level’ jobs are pushed out. You can’t afford the average room rent of £935 a month in London on your salary of less than 25k? Good luck! That ‘entry level’ job you’ve seen wants an MA museum studies and considerable experience (which you can only get if you work for free)? Good luck! The state of museum employment is highlighted by Fair Museum Jobs all too regularly.

I recently had a tweet thread go mildly viral, a rant on the hypocrisy of the sector in positioning itself as a beacon of liberal, progressive ideals yet staunchly neo-liberal and individualist in its refusal to acknowledge class and any wider structural and material barriers to participation. The response, which as a pretty low-key tweeter with hardly any followers, took me a back and speaks to the anger and frustration many are feeling. 

Yet this isn’t just about museum jobs, we must also understand the even wider context. This is a Britain in which the arts and humanities are under attack. When courses in literature, archaeology, history, classics are cut, and cut disproportionally at institutions which serve a more diverse student body. This is disastrous for access to the arts and humanities and rounded education available to all who want it. We are already seeing it across the arts sector in the UK. This is a culture which sees low paid jobs in places like the British Museum increasingly become jobs solely for those who don’t actually need to live off the wages. Pretty much every other museum in London and beyond has similar issues regarding pay and conditions. Yes, funding cuts mean museum budgets are restricted, but in my opinion the sector too often uses this as an excuse, there is an expectation to always do more with less. Perhaps we need to turn round and say ‘No, if we can’t pay people fairly then we just won’t do it’.  

The British Museum stands a symbol of art, history and culture being the preserve of the elite, the wider history of archaeology as a discipline which developed out of a hobby for rich dilletantes, and museums which developed as a patronising, top-down way of educating the masses via the generosity of rich philanthropists.

So yes, the closure of the British Museum feels powerful, today on all days, a day with strikes across the country, as working people are rightly pissed off after years of being taken for granted and our labour exploited to make the rich richer, this picket line feels more symbolic than most.