HC 507

 Written evidence submitted by the Museums Association [SMG 018]

Summary

i. Museums have high fixed costs for operating and maintaining complex and often listed buildings and for caring for often large reserve collections. This means cuts to revenue funding risk having a disproportionate impact on front-line public services.

ii. Museums throughout the UK face cuts in revenue funding from national and local governments.

iii. Increase in Heritage Lottery Fund resources can nowhere near compensate for cuts in public funding, particularly local-authority funding. It is vital to maintain the principle that lottery funding should be additional to existing public funding.

iv. Cuts in local authority funding are affecting the largest number of museums. As pressures on local authority funding increase still further it is likely to become increasingly difficult for local authorities to continue to fund museums at levels adequate to maintain public services.

v. To try to meet the challenge of less public funding, museums are changing working practices; for example, reducing energy consumption and introducing new, leaner staff structures.

vi. Museums are endeavouring to generate more income through activities such as shops, cafes and room hire.

vii. In many parts of the country-and for many museum subject areas-the potential for fundraising from private sources appears very limited.

viii. Museums are striving to maintain services to a wide range of audiences. However, in spite of changes to working practices and increased efforts in income generation, cuts in public funding are inevitably having a severe effect. Improved buildings aren’t being run to their full potential, there is less education work with schools and others, there is less work to widen access and make better use of collections.

ix. In the Museums Association’s 2012 survey, almost a fifth of museums reported reducing their opening hours in the past year; this is on top of a similar proportion reporting reduced opening hours in the 2011 survey.

x. It is interesting to note that the tradition of free access to publicly funded museums remains strong. Very few museums seem to have introduced admission charges.

xi. There is growing public interest in museums. The proportion of adults in England who had visited a museum or gallery reached 52% in 2012/13 - a significant increase from 42% in 2005/06. This means that some 4 million people visited a museum in 2012/13 who would not have done so in 2005/6.

xii. Research into public attitudes to museums shows that people feel very positive towards museums and that ‘museums are in a rare position of being trusted to provide accurate and reliable information in a national conversation increasingly dominated by bias and vested interest.’

xiii. The Museums Association’s new document Museums Change Lives shows museums now need to do more if they are to be relevant to a wide range of people and meet their needs. There is increasing recognition that museums can help address a wide range of social problems and needs. There are many inspiring examples of museums contributing to positive social change, usually working in partnership with public or third-sector partner organisations.

xiv. Museums Change Lives sets out an ambitious agenda, but ever deeper cuts to museums threaten this and mean museums will not be able to achieve their full potential for society.

Background

1. The Museums Association is the independent membership organisation representing museums and galleries throughout the UK and people who work for them. It has over 6,000 individual members and 600 institutional members. These institutional members encompass around 1500 museums in the UK ranging from the largest government-funded national museums to small volunteer-run charitable-trust museums. Formed in 1889, it is a not-for-profit charity, receiving no regular government funding, which seeks to inform, represent and develop museums and people who work for them in order that they may provide a better service to society and the public.

Funding cuts

2. ‘Shock’ is probably the best word to describe our feelings when rumours began to emerge that serious consideration was being given to closure of one of the Science Museum’s branches. It seems inconceivable that public access could be withdrawn from an entire national museum site. The only remote parallel we can think of was the decision by the V&A to discontinue operating the Theatre Museum as a separate building from 2007 and to relocate its operations to the main V&A building. But that was a carefully considered decision made for very different reasons, primarily that the building needed expensive refurbishment and it had proved impossible to raise the necessary capital funds. In contrast, the Science Museum’s three branches are all highly successful and have all had recent capital investment.

3. On reflection, there is perhaps an inevitability that a major museum will be considered for closure. The 15% cuts in grant-in-aid to national museums that were originally announced may not have been as bad as were feared, but there have been further cuts since and on one calculation cumulative reductions in funding (including capital) will amount to 24.3% by 2015, with a further 5% in 2015-16. Museums have high fixed costs for operating and maintaining complex and often listed buildings and for caring for often large reserve collections. This means cuts to revenue funding risk having a disproportionate impact on front-line public services.

4. It is, of course, not only national museums that face cuts in public funding. Museums throughout the UK face cuts in revenue funding from national and local governments. Support for regional museums through Renaissance in the Regions has been reduced as a result of cuts in central government funding and because of inadequate funding to cover the extra costs incurred by Arts Council England when it assumed some of the responsibilities of the former Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Since 2010, many funding streams that once benefited museums have now completely disappeared. (Examples in England include: Strategic Commissioning, Creative Partnerships, funding from Regional Development Agencies.) Heritage Lottery Funding has increased-and this is welcome - but the increase can nowhere near compensate for cuts in public funding, particularly local-authority funding. It is vital to maintain the principle that lottery funding should be additional to existing public funding.

5. Cuts in local authority funding are affecting the largest number of museums. The picture is very varied. At one extreme, some local authorities, such as the London Borough of Barnet, have withdrawn all funding for museums and museums have closed. Other local authorities still plan to continue to support museums as they recognise the wide range of benefits they bring to their area and to the people who live there. However, this is often at a significantly reduced level. Our 2011 survey of museum funding found that the budgets of almost a quarter of responding local authority museums had been cut by more than 25% in the past year alone.

6. Government data shows that overall local authority funding for museums in England fell by 11% in 2011-12 (Local Authority Revenue Expenditure and Financing in England: 2011 to 2012 Final Out-turn, Department for Communities and Local Government.)

7. Looking at a single year does not reveal the full extent of cuts, which in some cases are made year after year. Combining Museums Association survey data from 2011 and 2012 found that 31% of responding museums had their budget cut two years in a row. A third of these had an overall cut in excess of 35%. (These two-year figures refer to museums of all types, not only local authority museums.)

8. As pressures on local authority funding increase still further it is likely to become increasingly difficult for local authorities to continue to fund museums at levels adequate to maintain public services. As a result of thinking about its long-term funding position, Newcastle City Council has announced cuts of 44% over the next three years in its support for museums, affecting the Laing Art Gallery, Discovery Museum and the Great North Museum. Newcastle City Council is withdrawing all its funding for the multiple award-winning Great North Museum, which has attracted over two million visitors since it reopened in 2009. Like the Science Museum branches, these are highly successful museums, widely regarded as amongst the best in the UK.

The impact of cuts

9. To try to meet the challenge of less public funding museums are changing working practices; for example, reducing energy consumption and introducing new, leaner staff structures. In our 2012 survey, 39% of respondents said they have a larger proportion of volunteers within the workforce compared to April 2011. Many experienced staff have lost their jobs, meaning that organisations are losing skills and knowledge. The Museums Association’s Monument Fellowships scheme (originally funded by the Monument Trust) has played a small part in sustaining knowledge and skills, by enabling former staff to share their expertise with those who remain.

10. Museums are endeavouring to generate more income through activities such as shops, cafes and room hire. Our 2012 survey of museums found that 69% of respondents expected to concentrate more on generating income in 2013.

11. Museums are embracing the call for increased philanthropy and trying to raise more private and charitable funds. The effort to increase private giving will be boosted as the Catalyst programme develops. Our 2012 survey found that 62% of responding museums expected to do more fundraising in 2013. We welcome DCMS’s encouragement for philanthropy. However, in many parts of the country-and for many museum subject areas-the potential for fundraising from private sources appears very limited. The Museums Association is playing its small part in funding museums. We offer grants to museums on behalf of the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and also from a number of small trusts that we administer, supporting collecting, professional development and conservation.

12. Museums are striving to maintain services to a wide range of audiences. However, in spite of changes to working practices and increased efforts in income generation, cuts in public funding are inevitably having a severe effect. Improved buildings aren’t being run to their full potential, there is less education work with schools and others, there is less work to widen access and make better use of collections. 22% of respondents to the 2012 survey have reduced access to sites by closing whole or parts of sites, permanently or temporarily. It is clear that reductions in budgets make reductions in access more likely: 43% of museums with a 10%+ budget cut have closed whole sites or parts of sites, permanently or temporarily. 49% of museums with a 10%+ budget cut introduced or increased charges for school visits.

13. In 2012, almost a fifth of museums reported reducing their opening hours in the past year; this is on top of a similar proportion reporting reduced opening hours in the 2011 survey. The reductions in opening hours are significant: half of those reporting reducing hours in 2012 did so by more than 11 hours-the equivalent of a day and a half a week. As an example, the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield is now only open four days a week and even on those days closes at 3pm.

14. However, DCMS ministers refuse to acknowledge that cuts in public funding are having a severe impact on service delivery. They dismiss concern about the impact of cuts, with the Secretary of State complaining that she is frustrated by the sense of ‘perpetual gloom’ about the future of the cultural sector.

15. It is interesting to note that the tradition of free access to publicly funded museums remains strong. Very few museums seem to have introduced admission charges. In the 2012 survey only 3% of respondents had introduced a charge for permanent collections and 8% for special exhibitions. However, that covers only one year of change. Recent research (see below) reveals a strong public belief that ‘museums have to be accessible and inclusive to all, including the most vulnerable in society, [particularly] in terms of free/cheap entry, as well as physical aids for the disabled.’

Public support and interest

16. Paradoxically, cuts in public funding for museums coincide with growing public interest in museums. The proportion of adults in England who had visited a museum or gallery reached 52% in 2012/13-a significant increase from 42% in 2005/06. This means that some 4 million people visited a museum in 2012/13 who would not have done so in 2005/6. See www.gov.uk/government/publications/taking-part-2012-13-quarter-3-statistical-release

17. This increase in participation is probably due to a widespread public recognition that museums have improved significantly over the past decade or so and are more appealing to more people, largely thanks to redevelopments supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and to twenty years of museums’ paying increased attention to the interests and needs of a wide range of audiences.

18. We recently commissioned research into public attitudes to the purpose of museums, with support from Arts Council England, Museums Galleries Scotland and CyMAL (Museums Archives Libraries Wales). See www.museumsassociation.org/museums2020/11122012-what-the-public-thinks This found that museums are widely seen (by all except those who haven’t visited since school) as having changed for the better over the last generation, going from stuffy, sterile and boring to entertaining, interactive and stimulating.

19. ‘The most immediate finding from this research was the strong, resilient positivity felt toward museums and the passion which some of the discussions elicited. Interestingly, this was displayed by visitors and non-visitors alike, suggesting that museums are perceived to have a societal role that is broader than just satisfying individual visitors.’ (p26)

20. The research also found that ‘museums are in a rare position of being trusted to provide accurate and reliable information in a national conversation increasingly dominated by bias and vested interest.’ (p26) People ‘view museums as incredibly trustworthy… This is in stark contrast to other public institutions, such as the media, politicians and business, which the public sees as biased, politically motivated and fundamentally untrustworthy.’ (p20)

The potential of museums

21. The economic and educational impacts of museums are well known. Museums have the potential to make significant social impacts, too. In 2012, the Museums Association launched Museums 2020, an initiative looking at the future of museums and their impact. See www.museumsassociation.org/Museums2020. The ensuing discussion revealed the potential and ambition of museums to contribute to society. Following the Museums 2020 consultation, on 1 July we publish Museums Change Lives, our vision for the impact of museums. See www.museumsassociation.org/museums-chage-lives This shows the wide range of benefits museums can bring to individuals, communities and society.

22. Museums have always seen themselves as being for everyone and increasingly they are aiming to meet all people’s needs, whatever their background. It is no longer enough for a museum to merely acquire, care for and display its collection. That work will, of course, continue; but museums now need to do more if they are to be relevant to a wide range of people and meet their needs. There is increasing recognition that museums can help address a wide range of social problems and needs. Museums have a critical role to play in generating understanding between different groups and cultures - one of the future’s biggest challenges.

23. There are many inspiring examples of museums contributing to positive social change, usually working in partnership with public or third-sector partner organisations. These include National Museums Liverpool’s House of Memories training programme for dementia carers; Colchester Museums’ work with homeless people; Luton Museums’ Truck Art project that aimed to strengthen links between Luton and Lahore; and the Tank Museum’s work with young offenders that included the achievement of qualifications in basic skills and engineering.

24. The Museums Association argues that faced with austerity, museums should focus on the contributions they can make to their communities. They must not retreat and turn inwards. Museums Change Lives argues that every museum is different, but all can find ways of maximising their social impact.

25. Museums Change Lives sets out an ambitious agenda, but ever deeper cuts to museums threaten this and mean museums will not be able to achieve their full potential for society.

June 2013