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At beginning of WW2 @leicestermuseum (now New Walk Museum) was emptied and the contents sent to store in county, with building considered for military use. This was the situation inherited by new museum curator Trevor Thomas in early 1941
At beginning of WW2 @leicestermuseum (now New Walk Museum) was emptied and the contents sent to store in county, with building considered for military use. This was the situation inherited by new museum curator Trevor Thomas in early 1941
Thomas had been ethnography curator at what is now @World_Museum Liverpool (damaging his hearing firewatching from museum roof during Aug 1940 Liverpool blitz). He was determined to make Leicester Museum a valued part of the city's life even without collections and few staff
In part inspired by Kenneth Clark @NationalGallery he launched a whole cultural programme. These included lectures on art appreciation for servicemen, a weekly childrens club, 'holidays at home' activities and lunchtime classical concerts (which still continue today)
Like other cities, he also hosted touring exhibitions; often propaganda themed but also themes connected to emigree communities e.g. Polish artwork. Most significant was an extraordinary exhibition of pre-war German art organised with a London committee of German refugees
Euphemistically called 'Central European Art', Thomas was backed by his Museum Committee to not only show Expressionist and other Weimar 'degenerate' work (he'd seen it during a scholarship trip to New York in '30s) but actually buy some - including The Red Woman by Franz Marc
This was the start of the most important German Expressionist collection in UK. Several of the works came from members of the Jewish Hess family who had escaped Nazi Germany. One of these was Hans, a former Berlin journalist, who was then working as a farmhand nr.Loughborough
Trevor Thomas got him a job as his art assistant. After the war he went to @YorkArtGallery where he had an important career. As for Thomas, he had big plans for a progressive post-war Leicester museums, but ran into reactionary opposition who wanted a return to pre-war approach
Clashes occurred over repainting the museum walls from grey to pink, hosting an art exhibition by a couple of Nottingham children and plans to reorganise the perm. displays. Tactics included anonymous letters to local paper and a 'friendly visit' from his longserving predecessor!
In 1947 Thomas was arrested in a public toilet and charged with public indecency, allegedly for glancing at another man. He was told to plead guilty to avoid trouble. Ken Clark wrote a character reference and he was bound over. He was fired from his job on the steps of the court
Thomas went on to work for UNESCO, but his museum career was ended. In the late 1970s, Leics Museums Director Patrick Boylan reached out to Thomas and investigated the 1947 case - unusual in usually liberal Leicester. Found evidence Thomas had been targeted by local Establishment
A remarkable man who showed what can be done even with ltd resources if you have vision and community-focus. His monthly museum newsletters from 1940s still inspire.
For more, see @ace_national funded Expressionist gallery and website http://germanexpressionismleicester.org
For more, see @ace_national funded Expressionist gallery and website http://germanexpressionismleicester.org
