Museums Journal

“Arts Council England (ACE). Museums need to be part of a brand that is instantly recognised by politicians, the media and the public.

It will not be an easy alliance. Museums will change the landscape and content of the arts council because they are not just about art. I believe we will be a force for good within that environment and will benefit from closer contact with creative thinking and aspirations.

The openness and energy of the arts world will rub off on us and our commitment to change and authenticity will strengthen the arts council. Together we will make an awesome and exciting partnership for these new times.”



“The MLA is being abolished ‘to focus efforts on frontline essential services and to ensure greater value for money’. Amen to that. It matters little who has responsibility for museums; only what they do with it.

Centralisation broke vital local links leaving the MLA with a policy rump that could now be handled by the department for culture, badgered by our active and effective trade body.

For the rest: find an organisation with real understanding that can get funding into the frontline without shorttermism, irrelevant targets, bureaucracy, glossy best practice guides and homilies from the ill-informed. Then some museums might just weather the storm. Who knows, some may even thrive.”



“When government abolishes the MLA, either English Heritage or ACE could take over responsibility for museums. If we postulate the arts council as a front runner, museums need to press for a suitable agreement of union.

That might include: recognition that museums are a major activity in their own right, not just an “add-on” to something else; adoption by ACE of a wider outlook on the world that will allow it to see science, technology, history and natural history collections as every bit as valuable as the fine arts; and an extension of ACE’s Royal Charter and governance arrangements and, crucially, a change of name.”



“As someone who can just about remember when the Museums and Galleries Commission operated with six members of staff, the future for museums post-MLA holds many possibilities. However, the political reality is that the choices are probably confined to ACE, English Heritage or the department for culture direct.

English Heritage runs museum sites and many of our museums in are historic buildings. The arts council has the benefit of dealing with a wide range of clients, there is mutual interest in many art forms, and ACE has a good reputation for fighting its corner. I feel that ACE is probably the better option, although it would need to be reconstituted so that museums are not just an add-on.”