Gallery's online petition gains massive support (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Gallery's online petition gains massive support

3:56pm Wednesday 14th March 2007 in

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THE ONLINE petition to save William Morris Gallery has reached 1,600 names.

Reading like a who's who of experts on the Arts and Crafts movement, which Morris led, top curators and academics were among more than 1,000 people who signed the petition during its first week.

The petition was peppered with shock, dismay and total bafflement at Waltham Forest Council's plans to slash opening hours at the gallery in Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow, along with those at Vestry House Museum in Orford Road, Walthamstow, from April.

The changes mean that curatorial jobs, including that of world-renowned Morris expert Peter Cormack who has been at the gallery for nearly 30 years, are under threat and staff hours so reduced that the fear is they will be unable to organise exhibitions, art loans and answer scholarly inquires from around the world.

America's foremost tile historian and an expert on the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Cleota Reed of Syracuse, New York called the gallery a "unique and valuable resource for the study of the Arts and Crafts Movement which should not be closed or limited in any way, including the loss of its fine curator whose knowledge is indispensable to its interpretation."

Lisa Koenigsberg, director, programs in the arts at New York University, agreed.

"Save this invaluable treasure and resource and its institutional memory which resides in its peerless staff," she implored.

"Preservation is as critical to the Arts and Crafts movement as it is to ancient cultures."

Keeper of Furniture, Textile and Fashion at the V&A, Christopher Wilk, wrote: "The William Morris Gallery is an institution of international importance.

"If it is to have a future it cannot be run without expert, specialist staff, especially if the plan is to apply for major project funding, which it sorely needs."

Robert Reason, curator of Decorative Arts at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, who had travelled all from down under to see the world-famous collection held at the gallery and praised its "rich diversity".

"Celebrate this great designer which you were so fortunate to have in Waltham Forest," he said.

You can view and sign the petition at www.petitiononline.com/savewmg. For more information see www.keepourmuseumsopen.org.uk.