Memorandum submitted by Manchester City
Council
INTRODUCTION
Manchester City Council welcomes this inquiry.
The City Council is increasingly recognising the contribution
that museums and galleries and heritage, including archives, can
make to a sense of community as part of wider cultural development
alongside the City Council's wide reaching regeneration strategy.
Manchester City Galleries and Manchester Archives
Service are part of Manchester Cultural Services Directorate of
Manchester City Council, together with Manchester Libraries and
Information, Manchester Leisure, and the Cultural Strategy Team.
MANCHESTER CITY
GALLERIES
Manchester City Galleries Department is responsible
for:
— the care, development, presentation
and interpretation of the City's Designated collections of fine
art, decorative arts and costume—50,000 items;
— the operation of six historic
buildings. Four are open to the public, five are listed, and five
are based in parks:
Heaton Hall, Heaton Park, Prestwich;
Platt Hall, Platt Fields, Rusholme;
Wythenshawe Hall, Wythenshawe Park;
Conservation Studio, Harpurhey; and
The Old Parsonage, Fletcher Moss Gardens, Didsbury.
The Department is also responsible for 180 war
memorials and pieces of public art.
In addition to displaying items from the collections
for the public's enjoyment and inspiration, the Department also
brings the best in contemporary and historic art and design to
the city via temporary exhibitions. It provides a comprehensive
education service, from early years to older people, working closely
with the City's Education Department, and delivers an outreach
programme in association with the Culture and Regeneration Officers
across the city and other agencies working in areas such as Health.
Manchester City Galleries deliver only part
of the museums and galleries provision in the City. The other
major venues with Designated collections are: Manchester Museum
and the Whitworth Art Gallery, funded by the University of Manchester;
the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, an independent
trust funded by DCMS; and the People's History Museum, also an
independent with mixed funding from local and national government
sources. A formal partnership known as Manchester Museums' Consortium,
which is led by Manchester City Galleries, has been developed
to co-ordinate museum and gallery provision in the city and collaborate
on programming to contribute to educational attainment, community
engagement and cultural provision.
Manchester City Galleries is the lead venue
on the North West Museums Hub, in partnership with University
of Manchester (Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery),
Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Harris Museum and Art Gallery,
Preston, and Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle.
The NW Hub partnership works to deliver the
DCMS funded, MLA managed Renaissance in the Regions programme
to transform the museums and galleries sector in the North West
by putting the visitor at the heart of the service. The partnership
contributes to the regional vision of putting museums and galleries
at the leading edge of cultural life in the UK. Its aim is to
help promote the region's exceptional museum and galleries sector
as one of the most vibrant and innovative in Europe, for the benefit
of residents and visitors.
MANCHESTER ARCHIVES
SERVICE
Archive services exist to protect, preserve
and make accessible the nation's documentary heritage, and the
City Council is deeply committed to the provision of high-quality
archive services, not only to meet statutory requirements but
to engage with Manchester's people and communities and support
the delivery of education, learning etc. This commitment extends
to the provision and/or support of several services:
— Manchester Archives and Local
Studies: The service collects, preserves and provides access to
the documentary heritage of the City of Manchester, representing
all aspects of the City's history and people.
— Greater Manchester County Record
Office: Jointly funded by the Association of Greater Manchester
Authorities, including Manchester, and managed by the City Council,
the Record Office works closely with the Greater Manchester districts
to safeguard archives relating to the area as a whole, including
public and local government records and the records of local businesses,
societies and organisations.
— Other services provided by the
City Council, such as Manchester City Galleries, that hold significant
archive collections.
— Partnership working with external
organisations such as the People's History Museum with its extensive
archive collections including the Labour History Archive.
— Community archives such as the
Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, supporting communities
to create and preserve their own heritage.
The City Council is making significant investment
in the development and improvement of its archive services, with
the development of an exciting capital project to create the Manchester
Heritage Centre, uniting the City and County archive collections
with other complementary partners to create a unique one-stop
resource for existing and future users. Education, life-long learning
and social-inclusion will be at the heart of the new resource.
The City Council has recently submitted a bid to the Heritage
Lottery Fund to seek capital support to facilitate this innovative
project.
In addition, the City Council recognises the
cycle of record creation and selection that ensures that documentary
evidence of today is available for future generations, and is
committed to development of effective records management throughout
the City Council, as evidenced by the recent recruitment of a
Records Manager for the authority. This supports the City Council's
commitment to the principles and delivery of Freedom of Information,
which it recognises has a significant impact on archive services.
1. Funding, with particular reference to the
adequacy of the budget for museums, galleries and archives and
the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on Lottery funding for
the sector
Sustained funding for museums, galleries and
archives services is particularly important as we are currently
developing a clearer understanding of how our sector contributes
to the local economy. MLA NW has recently published a study with
Bolton MBC on the contribution that museums, libraries and archives
make to their local economy. This found that Bolton's museum,
library and archive services were valued by users and non-users
at £10.4 million (compared with a budget of £6 million).
This means that Bolton's museums, libraries and archives generate
£1.60 for every £1 of public funding received. Alternatively,
if public funding were to end, the Bolton economy would lose net
benefits of £3.9 million. The majority, £7.4 million,
of the value comes from the direct benefit enjoyed by users of
Bolton's museums, libraries and archives as opposed to non-users.
This underpins the critical role that these cultural services
play in many people's lives. Non-users value the museums, libraries
and archives at £3 million.
Recent changes to the Comprehensive Performance
Assessment show the increasing acceptance of the importance of
the cultural services block within the public sector. The City
Council particularly welcomes the recent recognition of Museums'
Accreditation in the CPA process. Renaissance in the Regions and
Designated Challenge Funding are key to enabling local authorities
to meet Accreditation requirements. The City also welcomes the
2006 Self-Assessment for Archives (under the auspices of The National
Archives) and the development of Best Value Performance Indicators
for Archives and incorporation in the CPA framework. We believe
that this needs a parallel identification and commitment of resources.
In particular, more funding should be directed to the archives
domain to implement the recommendations of the Archives Task Force
report, Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future. Many funding
streams remain closed to archives —for example, although
the Designation scheme was extended to archives in 2005, only
designated museum collections can receive money from the Designation
Challenge Fund.
It should also be noted that museums and galleries
are increasingly dependent upon earned income to support their
work. While we welcome working in an entrepreneurial environment,
this money is increasingly needed for core costs and consequently
makes services vulnerable, and can conflict with their social
objectives. In addition we have an increased dependency on short-term
project funding to deliver services.
1.1.1 Capital Funding for Museums
Manchester City Galleries is responsible for
five historic buildings, of which only Manchester Art Gallery
has had significant investment in the last two decades. In addition,
the Galleries Department is responsible for 180 monuments, war
memorials and public art works across the City, which also have
significant maintenance and conservation requirements.
The Heritage Lottery Fund continues to provide
essential core funding to address capital needs. The increased
demands on the Lottery in order to deliver the Olympic Games will
inevitably impact on resources to address the capital needs of
regional museums and galleries; however, recent commitments to
maintain support for HLF are welcomed. At a local level, Manchester
City Council has developed a positive strategic partnership with
HLF.
Support from MLA's Renaissance in the Regions
programme recognises the regional role that locally funded services
play. It is also crucial to realising the role of museum and gallery
collections in public education, and developing services which
will enable the sector to deliver to the Olympics agenda across
the country.
1.1.2 Funding for Museum Collections: Management
and Access
Manchester City Galleries is conscious of the
need to invest in the care of and access to its collections and
has secured additional resources from the City Council and external
sources (Renaissance in the Regions, Designated Challenge Fund,
Heritage Lottery Fund, grant giving trusts and commercial sponsorship)
to address these issues:
— With funding from the City Council's
capital programme it has been possible to computerise the basic
photographic and documentary records to SPECTRUM standard and
make them available on line via the Galleries' web site, which
currently receives 800,000 hits per year. Further resources are
needed to develop the site by creating narratives to engage new
audiences and contribute directly to educational attainment and
life long learning.
— Designated Challenge Funding
has also contributed to developing collection documentation management
systems, on line resources for particular collections, eg costume,
works on paper, etc.
— HLF funding has made a significant
contribution to acquisitions, documentation, interpretation, display,
and community engagement from the Major Grants Fund and Your Heritage
scheme.
— The Manchester Museums' Consortium,
through the Designated Collections Challenge Fund has facilitated
the introduction of a single collection management software system
that has facilitated shared access to collections and joint working
to provide new interpretations and access. Through partnership
working and procurement we have reduced costs of implementation
and development of the system.
— Supported by Renaissance in
the Regions, partnership working with other Consortium and Hub
members has developed projects that have provided new and effective
approaches to the interpretation of collections, community engagement
and formal education.
1.1.3 Funding for Museum Collections: Acquisitions
Manchester City Galleries has had a strong tradition
of contemporary collecting since its foundation in 1882, when
it acquired the building and collections of the Royal Manchester
Institution which had been collecting contemporary work from the
1820s. This tradition has led to strong 19th and early 20th century
holdings in the fine and decorative arts. Strategic donations
and purchases of collections and individual works have further
added to the strengths of the collections.
In recent years the Galleries' collecting has
been reactive not proactive, responding to opportunities where
they arose rather than strategically developing collections. The
Galleries' acquisition budget was reduced and ultimately cut due
to budgetary constraints in the 1980s and all acquisitions since
have been achieved through gift, the Government's in lieu of tax
scheme, or fundraising from sources such as the MLA/Victoria &
Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, HLF, and The Art Fund when
items appear at auction. The Department has also called on the
charities that support the Galleries' work, namely the Friends
of Manchester City Galleries, and Manchester City Galleries Development
Trust.
The only proactive scheme in recent years has
been the 5-year initiative developed by the Contemporary Fine
Art Society and funded by the Arts Council Lottery. This important
scheme worked with a number of galleries across England to establish
contemporary collections—via this initiative Manchester
City Galleries acquired contemporary furniture, lighting, photography
and sculpture, and training was provided for curators in order
to develop skills and knowledge.
Further funding support via dedicated Lottery
funds or tax incentives for contemporary collecting are needed
if the nation's major art collections are to include material
of the late 20th and 21st centuries that reflects contemporary
culture and communities.
1.1.4 Funding for Museum Collections Care
and Conservation
Manchester City Galleries has developed its
collection care and conservation team to address the benchmark
requirements of Accreditation for Designated collections. This
has involved a move away from resources focused on remedial conservation
to the broader role of collection care, which encompasses management
of storage and environmental conditions. There is difficulty in
recruiting to posts with a broader collection care role. There
is a need to develop capacity and skills to fulfil this need,
possibly through the work of the LSC's Cultural Heritage Skills
programme.
As leader of the North West Hub, Manchester
City Galleries has taken the lead in conservation issues for the
region, working with MLA North West and external consultants commissioned
by the Hub. The study has undertaken a mapping exercise and established
the continuing need for support and training across the region,
particularly to support the smaller and medium sized museums.
This can be delivered through the Renaissance in the Regions funding
programme, if this is sustained. Across the sector there are significant
on-going challenges around securing appropriate storage facilities
for collections care and resourcing specialist staff.
1.2 Funding for Archives
Without adequate funding for a strategic national
programme for development, archives cannot fully contribute to
Government's aim to make the country's heritage fully accessible
to its citizens. Many archive services are reliant on HLF programmes
to run projects to improve catalogues or to digitise material
for wider access. It is particularly important that HLF grants
continue to be awarded for archive cataloguing projects.
Traditional stewardship work has fallen lower
on the agenda, and in particular there has been a reduction in
the funding available for cataloguing, despite cataloguing being
the crucial linchpin that facilitates development work in education,
lifelong learning and social inclusion. Archive services can only
promote specific archives and archive collections, and use and
interpret them in meaningful ways to support specific activities
or programmes, if those archives can be identified accurately
and in context—that is what professional cataloguing allows.
Cataloguing is a labour intensive task, and
archive services across the country are faced with huge cataloguing
backlogs that are a barrier to access. The LOGJAM survey in the
North West in 2003 found that 29% of archival holdings are uncatalogued.
It would take one professional archivist an estimated 299 years
to make this material fully accessible. As long as backlogs like
this exist, these collections will remain inaccessible to the
public—a great waste of archives' huge untapped potential,
particularly in supporting the delivery of Government objectives.
2. Acquisition and disposal policies with
particular reference to due diligence obligations on acquisition
and legal restrictions on the disposal of objects
2.1 Museums
Museums' rationalisation of collections via
transfer to other museums could be a way of maximising the number
of collections that are cared for appropriately by staff with
relevant knowledge, as well as increasing public access.
The Museums Association's recent report Collections
for the Future provides a comprehensive framework for new approaches
to collections management. As part of this process the MA is currently
reviewing its ethical advice on disposal, and Manchester City
Galleries will participate in the consultation. As an accredited
museum, Manchester City Galleries believes there should be a strong
presumption against disposal, but where it is the only option
to deliver the strategic aims of the organisation, professional
guidelines should be followed, as well as the wishes of the donor,
if known.
3. The remit and effectiveness of DCMS, the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and other relevant organisations
in representing cultural interests inside and outside Government
3.1 Department for
Culture, Media and Sport
DCMS should take the lead in advocating more
effectively the important role that archives and other cultural
services can play in successfully delivering policy objectives
in other areas such as education, health, workforce development
and community regeneration.
3.1.1 Museums
Manchester City Galleries welcomed the support
provided by DCMS for Strategic Commissioning led by the National
Museums Directors' Conference, resulting in national/regional
partnerships. We would hope that this initiative is continued
to encourage greater collaboration between regional and national
institutions.
We would welcome greater co-ordination in the
framework for cultural entitlement, evaluation and collection
of performance statistics between DCMS, DfES and local authorities.
We believe that this would save considerable time and resources
and provide greater clarity.
We look forward to the publication in the autumn
of the DCMS report Understanding the Future, which is working
towards a much needed national strategy for museums.
3.1.2 Archives
DCMS should take steps to support innovation
and technical developments within the sector—The National
Archives is an obvious partner, especially with regard to the
long-term preservation of digital records. This is increasingly
pressing as the majority of existing UK archive services don't
have resources to address it. Records of government, business
and cultural life are increasingly created in electronic form.
Diversity of electronic records and frequent changes in computer
technology present a range of challenges that need to be tackled
in order to ensure that these records remain accessible over long-term.
TNA is already playing an active leading role in storing and preserving
digital material, but there needs to be a greater focus on this,
and on effective records management to ensure the nation's archive
collections continue to develop and remain relevant and complete.
There is wide range of different Government
Departments that represent archives. These include DCMS, MLA,
The National Archives, The National Council on Archives, the Department
for Constitutional Affairs and the Department for Local Government
and Communities. Some rationalisation of responsibilities is needed,
as there appears to be a lack of cohesion between the government
departments responsible for heritage, and particularly archives.
This weakens the advocacy that takes place for the sector within
central government and is not healthy for safeguarding the archival
heritage of the country. This must be resolved if there is to
be effective further legislation to increase and clarify the current
disparate statutory protection for archives and provision of archive
services, itself an area of confusion.
There is a pressing need for national records
and archives legislation (as supported in responses to the public
consultation Proposed National Records and Archives Legislation—proposals
to change the current legislative provision for records management
and archives, issued for consultation from Aug to Nov 2003 by
The National Archives). The Public Records Acts are out of date
and there is a desperate need for new archives legislation to
ensure the long-term preservation of public records and local
authority records (including electronic records). In addition
the National Archives need to be given more power to intervene
when local authorities are not meeting their legal requirements
relating to archives. Local authority services form the backbone
of the network through which most users access historical records
and the existing legislative basis on which these operate is insufficient.
New legislation would probably lead to resource implication for
local authorities that would need to be taken into account.
3.2 Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
3.2.1 Museums
At national level, MLA has worked effectively
to prioritise and champion the development of the museums' sector.
Renaissance in the Regions has transformed museum and gallery
services across the country. The agency is providing strong central
leadership in evidencing the impact of this investment in relation
to external agendas, such as Citizenship, Every Child Matters
and Youth Matters.
Leadership by MLA through Renaissance in the
Regions has raised standards of performance management and data
collection, so that now, for the very first time, there is a strong,
consistent evidence base of the impact of this positive national
programme on government agendas, such as literacy.
3.2.2 Archives
The National Archives (TNA) and MLA agendas
are different. The focus of MLA is very much on the Government's
learning and social inclusion/audience development agenda. They
are less concerned with issues such as electronic archives, records
management or preservation which TNA are very keen on. TNA and
MLA need to agree what the focus of local authority archive services
should be. There should be no mixed messages coming from Government.
To date, MLA has been a less successful advocate
for archives than for museums and libraries. Internal re-organisation
within MLA has created Heads of Policy for each of the sectors
it serves. This should strengthen the capacity of MLA to act as
a key advocate for archives to central government. In addition
to this crucial advocacy role, we would welcome the development
of MLA's role in setting standards of collections management,
care and security, and providing consistent advice and support
on implementing them.
September 2006
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