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Renaissance is the most significant development in English museums in a generation and was established as the result of concerns about the state of England's regional museums. In the 1980s and 1990s many of England's largest regional museums were suffering from ongoing funding cuts, leaving them unable to meet the expectations of their users. In 2000, Chris Smith, then Secretary of State for Culture, convened a taskforce to look into the problems facing regional museums, and propose solutions for their future development. The task force worked with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The task force's report, Renaissance in the Regions: a new vision for England's museums, was published in October 2001. It proposed a new structure for regional museums in England, with a 'hub' for each of the nine English regions, made up of a group of the largest museums, funded by central government and working together to improve museums across the whole region. In the Spending Review of 2002, the government allocated £70m to the scheme. Not all of this was new money and it amounted to considerably less than had been sought. For this reason, MLA decided to implement the scheme in phases. In the first phase three hubs (North east, South West and West Midlands) were given the majority of the money they needed to implement the Renaissance vision and the other six received small sums of money for development and planning. The government allocated further funding for Renaissance in the Spending Review of 2004. Although this was again less than the sum requested (only 60% of what was needed), it did mean that significant funding could be allocated in a second phase to the other six hubs. The regional museum hubs have developed plans according to MLA guidelines. All have an obligation to increase visits, particularly from non-traditional museum users and to extend their work with schools. In other respects, the hubs are pursuing priorities they have identified for their region. For more detail, see the summary plans available on the MLA web site: www.mla.gov.uk. Regional museum hubs are the main strand of Renaissance but the programme has many other elements. For example, more funding has been made available for museum development officers to support smaller museums, enabling more officers to be employed and boosting the budgets of existing services. Renaissance has also provided funding for the MA's Diversify programme and for Subject Specialist Networks, one of the ideas promoted by the Collections for the Future report. Click here to find out more about Diversify Click here to find out more about Collections for the Future The MA view The MA has backed Renaissance since its inception and worked closely with MLA and others to ensure the programme was supported by the sector. The MA is still fully supportive of Renaissance. But we believe that there has to be recognition that Renaissance will not solve all the problems faced by the museum sector. Indeed, nor was it intended to. There are currently particular concerns about the future for some smaller and medium sized regional museums. The time is right for the government and the sector to work together to develop a comprehensive national museum strategy, that will address the needs of all museums and their users. Links Click here to see the Renaissance in the Regions report in full (pdf) For more information about Renaissance in the Regions, click here Click here for a list of hub museums in Renaissance ^ TOP
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