Voxpop
What will be the main challenges for museums in 2015?
Simon Cane, deputy director, Birmingham Museums Trust
“The main challenges for most museums – and certainly those funded through the public sector – will remain how to deal with continued reductions in funding while maintaining services and developing resilience.
Many will focus on survival, but the key strategic challenge for the sector is moving the debate from one of cost to one of value.
How we value and pay for our museums is the critical debate, and if we fail to address this, we will see long-term and, in some cases, irreparable damage to museum services.”
Tim Desmond, chief executive officer, Galleries of Justice Museum and National Centre for Citizenship and the Law
“The main one I want to highlight is diversity. While society is richly diverse, the museum sector is not. It is vital that we find funding and the will to diversify the workforce, so that we can meaningfully make our museums, our collections and narratives multi-layered, enabling them to be accessible to all.
While the government is old school, it is important that the leadership and governance of our sector is the opposite. It is time to start to challenge the status quo and to bring about change in the way in which we think.”
Steph Mastoris, head, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
“Whatever the outcome of the general election, the squeeze on resources for publicly funded museums is unlikely to change, at least in the medium term. So, apart from the survival of our institutions, the greatest challenge will be maintaining as good a service to our users as possible with less of everything.
There are many opportunities in this. More partnership working, especially with anti-poverty agencies and organisations beyond the heritage world, will maximize our resources and demonstrate the relevance of museums and how they really can change lives.”
Christine Rew, art gallery and museums manager, Aberdeen City Council
“There are two key challenges. First, galleries and museums across the UK will need to consider how they respond meaningfully to their visitors’ heightened political and cultural awareness following the Scottish referendum.
The second is how to work together to support museums that are struggling with budget cuts, and protect the collections that are at risk as a result. In Aberdeen, our challenge will be to find new ways of delivering the service for two years after closing in the spring for a major redevelopment of the art gallery.”