Whilst I’ve rarely actually taken many photographs in museums and galleries, I often notice that UK museums are very hostile to photography. This is presumably because all to frequently people don’t know how to disable the flash, and flash light is very harsh and possibly damaging to exhibits. That or the lawyers fear copyright infringment.
Unfortunately, this one-size-fits-all policy means those of us who know how to disable flash, respect copyright, and might want to undertake photography projects, either have to fork out money for a pass, pay for publication. Compare this to The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where I was pleased to see they allowed (non-flash) photography.
As we live next door to Pollok country park here in Glasgow, I popped into the Burrell collection to enquire what their policy was.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that they allow (non-flash) photography for personal use. So it sounds like my project for some rainy afternoons over the next few weeks and months can go ahead. However, the policy is a little vague about non-commercial publication on personal websites, such as this, and my flickr pages. So I was directed to their PR department.
I’m waiting to hear back from them now. But I’m hopeful they’ll agree to my request, and that - in time - I might have some interesting photographs 
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April 21st, 2006 at 9:39 am
Just got this response:
Which, I referred to in my e-mail at being 800×600 - this is generally unsuitable for serious use, and certainly for printing.
So, not bad, but saying I can’t ‘publish’ to flickr and the like is annoying. More also here at the Glasgow flickr group. A shame in my view that they’re missing a trick to encourage amateur photographers and others to visit through a bit of ground-level support and involvement. Frustrating too that the galleries I support with my council tax impose such a silly restriction: The only thing they’re losing out on is a perceived risk of fraudulent poster/postcard/etc production, and a few pounds of commercial licenses (And folk doing that probably wouldn’t pay the fee anyway).