Annual Trustees' Dinner 2024: Speech by Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE

Good evening, I'm Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum and I'm thrilled to welcome you all to the Trustees' Dinner.

Held this year in The Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery – a room that is a shining example of the Museum's international reach.

We are surrounded by thousands of years of human history.

To my right are objects and collections from South Asia and India. To my left, a history of China from 5000 BC to the present day.

This gallery, like many in the Museum, reflects the complex histories of some of the objects in our collection and makes us ask questions about our purpose.

I would like us to continue to deliver on our founder Hans Sloane's 1749 ambition for the British Museum to be "as useful as possible, as well towards satisfying the desire of the curious, as for the improvement, knowledge and information of all persons."

It is this radical idea: that everyone should have access to a complete history of human knowledge and endeavour, that led to the creation of this Museum.

Indeed, this radical origin and founding mission poses an important question about the role of the universal museum today and in the future.

And it's thanks to the people who have driven that ambition over the past 275 years that we're here tonight, still surrounded by this wonderful collection.

Three centuries on from Sloane's statement, we're still thinking about how to deliver on that pioneering idea, now in a global and digital age. And how to ensure that that pledge to deliver for 'all persons' can be made to mean exactly that: all persons?

As you'll be aware, many have questioned the relevance of universal museums, in fact, it's become rather fashionable to question whether we should exist at all.

And rather than shy away from that challenge, I am determined that we embrace it.

Indeed, it is my belief that the answer lies not in retreating from the concept of the universal ideal, but in striving to be ever more universal as David Olusoga recently stated.

To make us not a bastion, but a beacon; an agora rather than a storeroom, and a forum for ideas, discussions and different viewpoints. And above all always open: to knowledge, new ideas and ways of doing things.

I hope you'll agree with my view that the British Museum can be a catalyst for positive change, and that it is our very universality that makes us relevant in the 21st century.

Internationally we already work across all continents, but we can do even more.

This year saw the loan of Asante gold to the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, and a lecture from the Asantehene held here at the British Museum.

We saw the enormously successful partnership with Getty and CSMVS Museum in Mumbai and I'm delighted to say that, for the first time, we will host a display curated by CSMVS here next year as part of a truly reciprocal relationship.

And in Nigeria we have worked in partnership with Museum of West African Art, to which my colleagues attended the opening of last week, to support preconstruct archaeology.

Those are just a few examples of the kind of cooperation and reciprocal exchange I want to foster more of.

Not just of objects, but also of scholarship, research and ideas.

Indeed, I would like us to be, and to be seen to be, the most collaborative museum in the world.

Closer to home, but still on the theme of collaboration, we already work across all four nations of the UK.

We have partnerships with more than 250 cultural organisations, and we lend more than any other museum in the UK. But we will do even more to become the most truly national museum.

Through partnerships, loans, exhibitions, and research we want to create a positive cultural, educational, social and economic impact for people and places across the UK.

So how do we do that?

Next year, we have our new partnership gallery opening in Norwich in the new year, and more in the pipeline.

We also have an Ice Age exhibition in my neck of the woods – Bradford, no favouritism – as part of their city of culture.

Our new Archaeological Research Centre in Reading is complete and will offer a radically different approach to the Museum's research collection.

And closer to home, here in our Camden base.

Works have begun on the new energy centre, which will pave our way to net zero.

In the next few months, we will select the architect to lead the renovation of the Western Range, a project that will run alongside a complete reimagining of how we display the collection.

We will also be announcing the team that will lead the design of our new Welcome Pavilion. Visitors will no longer be greeted by a white tent, instead they'd be welcomed into a modern and accessible Museum.

This is just a foretaste of what's to come as we think about how we can work towards BM300 so that, by the time of that anniversary in 2053, we can truly fulfil our founding mission to make this – the most universal of museums – universally accessible.

So please join me in thanking everyone, everywhere involved in these accomplishments, from our Trustees to our colleagues across the nation and around the world, and of course the remarkable team here at the British Museum for everything they are doing. 

They inspire me every day, I will just say an incredible group of people.

Forgive me if I beam with pride at all the work that the amazing team here at the British Museum are doing. It inspires me every day, and it is a team I am so proud to be leading.

I hope you will all continue to support us on our way.

But for now, once again, welcome – and I hope you enjoy your evening.