Focus on stately homes, not race rows, National Trust told
Candidates standing for the charity’s council say current strategy of ‘explaining history is well-intentioned but flawed’
Hayley Dixon | The Telegraph | 6 September 2022
The National Trust must stop presenting its stately homes through the “prism of race”, a candidate for the charity’s council has said.
Bola Anike has said that she wants to see the Trust “focus on its purpose” of looking after properties for future generations and says that the current strategy “of explaining history is well-intentioned but flawed” as it is important to see history in “context” and not to “impose contemporary values”.
Pitching for election, the property manager said: “It is a mistake to present the past through the prism of race and make assumptions about what people will find offensive or apportion praise and blame.”
There are seven vacancies for the Trust’s council which will be filled at the annual meeting in November. The council appoints the chairman, deputy chairman and members of the board of trustees and holds them to account.
Ms Anike is one of the candidates recommended by Restore Trust, a member’s campaign group that believe that the charity has lost focus on its original purpose.
They are also backing Jeremy Black, a historian who has told members that the Trust’s “judgmental presentation of some properties has caused unnecessary controversy” and has called for “a more nuanced and rigorous approach which will aid deeper understanding”.
‘Outdated’
Philip Gibbs, also backed by Restore Trust, has called for the charity to be “less political” and to reverse decisions to describe the mansion experience as “outdated” and to put some collections in storage and get rid of experienced curator posts.
Putting his case for election, he argues that the charity “needs to become faithful to original donor intentions and start trusting its members”.
The Trust recommendations for candidates that it believes should be elected include Sally Hunt, a president of the TUC, and Will Wilkin, a BBC executive who has said that the charity should be “even more focused on efforts to diversify people who visit and work with us”.
This year's AGM promises to be another heated meeting for the charity when it will face votes on whether it should continue to “waste” money participating in Prideand if it should be forced to set up an independent watchdog to deal with complaints.
A spokesperson for the National Trust said: “Under our democratic governance arrangements, any National Trust member has the right to stand for election to the council. While our nominations committee makes a recommendation based on who best meets a range of required criteria, members can vote for any of the candidates standing. In this year’s election, there are 26 candidates for seven vacancies.”