Striking the balance between old and new
Some nationals struggle to maintain their existing buildings
When the former director of London’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Sandy Nairne, spoke last year about the challenges facing his successor, one of the things he highlighted was the steady increase in visitor numbers and how that would need “creative work” in future planning for the gallery.
According to 2011 figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), since free admission was introduced in 2001, visits to London nationals that previously charged have increased by 151% and to those outside London by 148%. And across all the nationals, those numbers have remained high or carried on rising (see box).
The NPG, like many national museums, occupies a 19th-century Grade I-listed building.
This makes it hard to implement changes, both internally and externally. The British Museum, which welcomed 6.7 million visitors in 2014-15, states in its annual report: “Current visitor numbers. . . create severe points of congestion and put a strain on the building.”
For many nationals, the answer is to expand. Last year, the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Tate Britain and the Science Museum completed major capital projects. There are ongoing developments at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, Tate St Ives and Tate Modern, London.
The National Army Museum in London is undergoing a £23m redevelopment, after being awarded £10.7m in capital funding by the Ministry of Defence in 2014-15. The museum’s director, Janice Murray, says there has been no significant investment in the building since the 1980s, so the infrastructure is struggling. Investment in the redevelopment has helped put the museum’s plans into practice, and she expects visitor figures to rise when
it reopens next year.
But diminishing DCMS capital funding for national museums, from £81.85m in 2009-10 to £30.3m in 2014-15, has led to museums working on large capital projects while struggling to maintain their existing buildings.
Sharon Granville, the executive director, collections and estate, at National Museums Liverpool (NML), says there is always “a significant tension” between new developments and the need to maintain ageing estates and historic buildings. But where NML has previously used the DCMS’s capital grant as seed funding to attract investment for major capital projects, the grant has diminished to the point where it can now be used only for emergency and priority capital repairs.
A 2004 report from the National Museum Directors’ Council found that national museums and galleries needed £10m a year to modernise their facilities and a further £30m a year to “address the backlog of property repair and maintenance work”, estimating the need at £150m annually across the sector.
Museums Journal understands that a backlog still exists for some nationals, and because of the capital grant cuts, they are competing for an increasingly small pot.
The new developments continue, but maintaining existing infrastructure is becoming tougher than ever.
According to 2011 figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), since free admission was introduced in 2001, visits to London nationals that previously charged have increased by 151% and to those outside London by 148%. And across all the nationals, those numbers have remained high or carried on rising (see box).
The NPG, like many national museums, occupies a 19th-century Grade I-listed building.
This makes it hard to implement changes, both internally and externally. The British Museum, which welcomed 6.7 million visitors in 2014-15, states in its annual report: “Current visitor numbers. . . create severe points of congestion and put a strain on the building.”
For many nationals, the answer is to expand. Last year, the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Tate Britain and the Science Museum completed major capital projects. There are ongoing developments at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, Tate St Ives and Tate Modern, London.
The National Army Museum in London is undergoing a £23m redevelopment, after being awarded £10.7m in capital funding by the Ministry of Defence in 2014-15. The museum’s director, Janice Murray, says there has been no significant investment in the building since the 1980s, so the infrastructure is struggling. Investment in the redevelopment has helped put the museum’s plans into practice, and she expects visitor figures to rise when
it reopens next year.
But diminishing DCMS capital funding for national museums, from £81.85m in 2009-10 to £30.3m in 2014-15, has led to museums working on large capital projects while struggling to maintain their existing buildings.
Sharon Granville, the executive director, collections and estate, at National Museums Liverpool (NML), says there is always “a significant tension” between new developments and the need to maintain ageing estates and historic buildings. But where NML has previously used the DCMS’s capital grant as seed funding to attract investment for major capital projects, the grant has diminished to the point where it can now be used only for emergency and priority capital repairs.
A 2004 report from the National Museum Directors’ Council found that national museums and galleries needed £10m a year to modernise their facilities and a further £30m a year to “address the backlog of property repair and maintenance work”, estimating the need at £150m annually across the sector.
Museums Journal understands that a backlog still exists for some nationals, and because of the capital grant cuts, they are competing for an increasingly small pot.
The new developments continue, but maintaining existing infrastructure is becoming tougher than ever.