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The results of the survey point to a future of declining services, falling visitor numbers and potential mothballing of collections if funding for Renaissance in the Regions is cut.

In August 2010 the Museums Association (MA) surveyed all Renaissance funded regional museum hubs, representing all of the 42 museum services funded by the programme. The MA received response from all 9 hubs.

Renaissance in the Regions has been a transformative programme for regional museums, raising the standards, services and profile of museums. The results of the survey show that the funding has led to increases in audiences of well over 40% since the programme started in 2002.

Respondents acknowledged the legacy that Renaissance would leave behind, but feared that without ongoing funding the progress made through the programme would erode quickly.

All respondents predict that cuts in Renaissance funding, coupled with additional cuts from local authorities and other funding bodies such as universities will trigger comprehensive re-shaping and re-prioritising of their services.

100% of respondents see a cut in Renaissance funding leading to a reduction in many public facing services such as education and learning programmes, temporary exhibitions, events and work with hard to reach audiences. 

However museums remain committed to finding ways to protect some of the front line public facing services, such as visitor services and front of house staff to ensure they can keep the doors open, prioritising them over other areas including collections.

This means that collections are facing the biggest threat as the planned reshaping and reprioritising of museum activity will see resources being diverted away from all areas of collections use and care. 

Use of collections will drop, as there will be fewer temporary exhibitions, gallery refurbishments, loans or other activities. There will be fewer staff with the skills to care for collections and knowledge of collections is likely to be under increasing threat as the number of curatorial staff decline.

The public will be the biggest losers if Renaissance funding is cut. On top of reductions in public facing services the survey showed that faced with cuts of 25%, over 40% of museums would consider introducing or increasing charges while a third of museums will be forced to close sites or parts of sites. 

Respondents predict that this could lead to a reduction in visitor figures of over 20% should Renaissance funding stops completely.

To read a summary of the survey's key findings, click here (pdf)