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There are many difficult tasks, but not for negative reasons. The scale and reputation of the Museum, the number of visitors, its large collection and the amazing staff that work here mean tasks can be daunting, but always rewarding. How does the BM avoid the setbacks of funding cuts to continue maintaining its usual standards of quality? Over the past five years the Museum has seen its budget cut by around 24% which has made continuing to maintain standards of quality difficult. The Museum is fortunate to benefit from supportive corporate and individual donors and we have sought to make the most of commercial opportunities to ensure we can continue to programme as usual and continue to make the collection widely available. What are the main criteria followed by the museum as far as its exhibitions go? We try to ensure a diverse exhibitions programme which includes popular subjects, such as Pompeii alongside less well known themes such as the Hajj Pilgrimage, Ice Age Art, the history of Afghanistan and so on. We want to ensure the programme covers the world, reflecting all world cultures, both ancient and modern. Should one of the main activities of a museum seeks to enhance the visibility of its own collections? Yes, the collection and the people that use it are the most important element of any museum. The collection has to be accessible, and we currently live in a world where we can widen that access through national and international touring, access to collections online, through social media and so on. How is the usual visitor of the British Museum? The Museum is the most popular visitor attraction in the UK and serves multiple audiences: families; students; scholars; schoolchildren; culture vultures; tourists and so on. The majority of the Museums visitors (43%) are aged between 16 and 34. How do you see the future of the museum? The future of the Museum will involve widening access to the collection to reach all global citizens. We already do this in a physical way by lending objects and exhibitions nationally and internationally (the British Museum is the world’s leading lender). But digital really holds the key to this, to have the Museum in your pocket, portable and accessible wherever you are through digital devices. This will never replace the experience of seeing an object face to face but it will mean the collection can be truly global, available for the world to use. Is the American system of museum management very different from the European model? Yes, very different. Though many US museums are set up as Trustee bodies (as is the BM) they receive their funding in different ways (though some do get government support contrary to opinion). Many US museums were set up as art galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art for example. Their approach and interpretation is therefore focused around the artistic value of the objects (and indeed they contain many paintings). The British Museum doesn’t have that focus so we can explain and tell the multiple stories behind objects. As a final thing Dr. MacGregor: How do you see the future of the culture in Europe? I think –and hope– that museums will continue to thrive and that ever wider audiences will recognise the need to experience and understand other cultures in order to understand the world Luisa Noriega Neil MacGregor en/ in Xi’an (China). Patronato del Museo Británico/ Trustees of the British Museum 11