By Ian Blatchford, Director, Science Museum Group.
The Science Museum Group is a publicly-funded cultural organisation and banning individuals or groups or companies from booking one of our rooms or galleries because they hold irrational beliefs, or cherish values that we don’t share, would suggest that we regard hiring a space in one of our museums as an endorsement and that’s simply not true: we take bookings from charities, Government departments, interest groups, companies, political parties, cultural organisations and individuals and no reasonable person would conclude that we therefore endorse them all and their views.
I do get pressed on homeopathy from time to time and am well aware of the robust views of the Chief Medical Officer who stated ‘outwith the placebo effect, homeopathy has no impact…it’s rubbish’. But however persuasive I may personally find the argument of the CMO and scientists, that does not change the Science Museum Group’s policy that a booking at one of our museums does not represent our endorsement of the booker. We treat all events booked by legitimate organisations equally.