In addition to his achievement in the literary world, Matthew Evans, Lord Evans of Temple Guiting, had a decisive impact on the work of regional museums. In 2000, in an imaginative move by Chris Smith, then secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Matthew was asked to chair a reformed Museums and Galleries Commission. He set about the task with his customary energy, refusal to accept precedent and quick grasp of the key issues.
Almost immediately, he became aware of the great inequality of funding between national museums in receipt of central government grants and regional museums totally dependent on declining local authority funding. He commissioned and, largely himself, wrote a report, Renaissance in the Regions, which recommended that for the first time central government funding should be made available to the large museums working as centres of regional hubs. Smith and the chancellor responded with enthusiasm and a new era began, reversing the decline of previous years.
The success of regional museums in the past 15 years, notwithstanding current pressures, owes much to Matthew’s tough independence and his view that audiences outside London deserved as much attention as those in the capital. In this, as in his main pursuit, he was well ahead of the field.
