Annual Report 2008-9 - The British School at Rome

D IRECTOR’ S R EPORT
For a director who has served the School for fourteen
years, it is no easy thing to bid this institution farewell,
nor to put into words what he owes it. My colleague David
Forgacs, in his report below, his last after a three-year stint
as the inaugural Research Professor in Modern Studies,
says that he ‘considers his three years based at BSR to have
been without doubt the best research opportunity he has
had in his career since he finished his doctorate in 1978, as
well as an uniquely rewarding social and intellectual
experience’. Scarcely a scholar or fellow or award-winner
leaves the School without this sense of regret and
indebtedness. The School may set about justifying its
existence in the modern world in a variety of ways.
Recently the British Academy has been encouraging us to
think in terms of what we bring back to the British
economy and national welfare. But in the end, the litmus
test is this: do those who pass through the institution
bring back lasting profit from it? A director is no different
from a research professor or a scholar. The telling
question is not what you have done for the institution, but
what it has done for you. My latest, longest and hardest
book, Rome’s Cultural Revolution, finally came out in
November 2008. I dedicated it to the British School at
Rome because I could only have written it here. The
opportunity the School has given me to widen my
horizons, to immerse myself in the archaeology and
material culture of Italy, and to meet and make friends
with a range of Italian and other international scholars and
draw stimulus and inspiration from them, is unthinkable
without having this base for British scholars in Rome. And
this is only an example of the debt I owe. Running such an
institution makes great demands, not just on time. But if
the cause is a good one, the effort brings its own reward.
The British School at Rome is extraordinarily rewarding
cause to work for, because it repays your efforts and
flourishes, something impossible if the institution had not
been set up right in the first place, and if it did not have a
valid place in the contemporary world.
4
The past year, like those before it, has been one of
vigorous and varied activity, but now in the face of real
financial hardship. The collapse of sterling since September
2007 has been catastrophic, from a purchasing power of
nearly 1.5 euros to the pound to something very close to
parity at its lowest point in March 2009. The drop may be
advantageous for the British economy, but for a British
institution operating in the euro-zone (the British School at
Athens being equally affected), with an income stream
almost wholly in sterling, and expenditures largely in euros,
the impact is very severe.
We have had to rein in spending on many fronts. One of
the first to be hit was the Contemporary Arts Programme.
For ten years, Cristiana Perrella has run an exceptionally
lively programme of contemporary art shows, in recent
years being able to make use of our new Gallery space. The
programme has enjoyed the highest respect within the
Roman art world. On the basis of minimal funding, she has
pulled off a programme that has been the envy of far betterfunded
institutions in Rome. For the last year, the funding
situation has forced us to abandon the programme. Yet the
School is determined to reaffirm its commitment to
contemporary art. Over the last year, one of our Trustees,
Tim Llewellyn, now free from his responsibilities as
Director of the Henry Moore Foundation, has drawn up, in
consultation with numerous parties inside and outside the
institution, a document on the future of the fine arts at
BSR. The commitment is there, and the conclusion is that
we should aim higher, attracting artists of the highest
calibre, and making a ‘Rome prize’ as sought after as an
award like the Turner Prize.
In the debate on the future of the fine arts, a key role is
played by the British Academy. By happy chance, this year
was the BSR’s turn for a periodic review. We now absorb
over one million pounds a year of public finance (though
our accounts show how, on the back of that, we generate at
least double, or including the Herculaneum project, four
times the amount of non-public finance). We are a heavy