Textile Conservation Centre: no help from the government

I have blogged previously about the imminent closure by the University of Southampton of the Textile Conservation Centre at Winchester School of Art, and exhorted people to sign the petition. The government has made its response and a, frankly, unhelpful one it is too.

Textile Conservation Centre closure

I blogged about the closure of the Textile Conservation Centre in November. The deadline for signing the petition is fast approaching, so please, if you haven’t yet signed it and care about keeping this internationally important facility going, do so here.

Textile Conservation Centre under threat

The renowned Textile Conservation Centre at the Winchester School of Art is under threat of closure. Originally located at Hampton Court, the centre is important internationally as a leading body into research into historic textiles; it also provides training for potential conservators. This would be a huge loss were it to close. Please sign the petition to keep it open.

The School of Art is part of the University of Southampton. This university has found the money to rebuild the Mountbatten building, revise its logo and send the vice-chancellor on global temperature increasing flights on private jets across the Atlantic. Whereas the former is necessary to the continued success of the university, the other two certainly aren’t. The proposed closure of the centre seems to be one of many closures and job cuts happening in other academic areas of the university, which is potentially very worrying, especially for a university that prides itself on being part of the Russel Group and in the top 10 research universities in the country.

Yes, I am angry, very angry.