The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has told GB News plans to “decolonise” their collections does not mean they’re “erasing history”.
The Birthplace Trust is an independent charity which looks after Shakespeare heritage sites in Stratford-upon-Avon, but in the last week, the organisation has come under scrutiny over plans to "decolonise" its extensive museum collections.
Research - by the Trust and Dr Helen Hopkins from the University of Birmingham in 2022 - claimed the playwright's legacy has been used to advance ideas of "white supremacy".
Responding to the criticism, Academic Advisor to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Professor Charlotte Scott, said the plans did not mean they were “erasing history”, and the focus was purely on the collections of the trust, not Shakespeare’s work.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has told GB News plans to “decolonise” their collections does not mean they’re “erasing history”
Getty/ GB News
She told GB News: “The point of what we're trying to do at the moment is to explore how those objects came into the possession of the Trust, what is our responsibility in interpreting them, and to better understand over the evolving last 200 years, exactly how that interpretation has taken place.
“We're not erasing history. We're not censoring history. We're understanding it and making it accessible, inclusive and available to all audiences.”
The comments come at the start of Shakespeare Week, a celebration aimed at introducing the work of the Bard to primary school aged children, and keeping his legacy alive.
Professor Scott said the week allows children to explore Shakespeare’s work.
She said: “Children at this age, primary school age, they are much more receptive to being able to explore it without specific assessments to take advantage of the way they would like to interpret it.
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“We feel very passionately and proudly about the Shakespeare's works and the way in which they have become significant across the globe in different ways, and Shakespeare is, of course, constantly being reinvented through adaptation in theatre.
“That's wonderful, because that allows us to return to Shakespeare as a kind of agile source for further creativity.”
Elsewhere, criticisms of the Bard’s work suggest it contains language or depictions that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise harmful.
In his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, residents reacted to the claims.
One man told GB News: “It's just part of our heritage, it’s part of our history and I think the continuation of that, people learning about what it meant and the great history this town can offer when people do come and visit it, is really, really important."
Another woman said: “I feel everything is being dumbed down, but at what loss? At what price?
“If children 50, 60, 70 years ago could understand Shakespeare, why can’t children of today understand Shakespeare?”
Research - by the Trust and Dr Helen Hopkins from the University of Birmingham in 2022 - claimed the playwright's legacy has been used to advance ideas of "white supremacy"
Getty
A second woman said: “I think it gives them quite a varied English lessons, doesn't it? Something that's not just modern stuff, it's looking back and reflecting on things that used to be.”
In Dudley in the West Midlands, The King Alfred Schoolprides itself on celebrating figures such as Shakespeare.
Headteacher and founder of the school, Tom Bowen, said it's about celebrating British culture and preparing students for later life.
He told GB News: “Our school was set up in response to the general drift away from passing on our culture through education.
“We really celebrate British culture as part of Western culture as a whole and Shakespeare is a huge part of that.
“Yes the language is tricky and the concepts are difficult but we see it as our job to prepare our students to get them to a point where they can access Shakespeare.”
Abigail - a pupil at the school - said: “My favourite is Henry V because there’s loads of battles and action in it.”
