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July 1999
Our museum is located in a historic house whose rooms provide an attractive venue for corporate events. We are now considering ever more lucrative bookings from ever larger companies. However, they want us to close to the public and to hold their events during normal opening hours.
Is it acceptable to occasionally close to the public to accommodate these clients? The revenue would fund expansion of our education programme.
Museums need sound financial management in order to further their purposes, but those purposes must never be subordinated to income generation. Furthermore, for museums to be, or be perceived to be, sites for the affluent to express their status perpetuates their association with the socially divisive elitist connoiseurship we are trying to shed.
The concept of the moment in museology is access. Venue hire may increase access to and enjoyment of the historic rooms at times when they are normally closed. However, enabling privileged 'clients' to pay you to restrict public access during normal opening hours even 'occasionally' could set an unwelcome precedent and send the wrong signals about who the museum is most accessible to.
Temporary closure should never be provided on demand or become routine. Venue hire should not become an income stream that is unreflectively exploited. Do not allow your finanical projections to depend on closures for these events. Remember, your first obligation is to the everyday public.
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