Museums in Wales strive to diversify their income streams
But the revenue from cafes and shops is unlikely to adequately fill the gap left by local authority budget cuts
Swansea’s UK City of Culture bid for 2021 is a source of hope for its cultural institutions, but in the shorter term, its museum is facing a significant challenge, in the same way as many local authority funded institutions in Wales.
In June, the leader of Swansea council told the BBC that the museum needed to operate more commercially to compensate for budget cuts, pointing out that it did not have a cafe.
A statement on the council website reads:“Although there will be a £50,000 reduction in our budget for Swansea Museum next year, we expect overall funding for the museum to increase through grants and the generation of more income from commercial opportunities.”
It adds that the cut represents less than 10% of the museum’s annual funding from the council, and says it has been offset by early retirement and voluntary redundancy applications from museum staff.
The Welsh Museums Federation expressed concern in a statement, saying: “We would like to see more support and time given to the museum to enable it to generate its income targets successfully.”
Victoria Rogers, the federation’s president, says most museums in Wales have either had their budget cut in real terms or been given a savings target. This compounds difficulties caused by the low levels of historic investment noted in the Expert Review of Local Museum Provision in Wales 2015.
Concerted effort
Many Welsh museums are already making a concerted effort to diversify their income streams, says Rogers. But such projects are not guaranteed money-spinners.
“Cafes can certainly be part of a museum’s income generation, but they need investment – to build, for staff and to run properly – if they are to make money,” she says. “We are concerned that museum cafes and shops are seen by stakeholders as able to generate the income necessary to offset budget cuts.”
There may be ways for museums to access new funding sources by embedding their work within wider objectives. But two crucialingredientsneededto develop new partnerships and business models are time and capital investment.
Storiel in Bangor opened on a new site in 2016 with the help of a £1.4m Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant. The venue has a cafe (run by a contractor) and a larger shop than in Storiel’s previous incarnation, Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery. Since reopening, visitor figures have risen from 15,000 to 83,000 a year.
Nest Thomas, the principal museums and arts officer at Gwynedd Council, says: “The cafe and shop are crucial because they bring in income that will help contribute towards either a staff post or exhibitions, for example. But they also contribute to the visitor experience.”
Other income-generating ventures include room hire and commission on artwork sales, and the museum is also in the process of setting up a development trust for fundraising.
The council-run museum receives £46,740 a year from Bangor University (about half what the authority contributes), which also loans a large collection to Storiel.
Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth last year received a £916,200 HLF grant for a project that will create a new street-level entrance, cafe and a larger shop, together with a tourist information centre, in a recently vacated building next door. The target for the combined annual revenue from the cafe and shop is £64,000.
The project will appoint a community engagement officer to build the museum’s audience and a sustainability officer to explore income- generating opportunities for two years. After that period, one of these will become a permanent role.
The authority invested £200,000 from its sale of the former tourist information centre into the project and turned down other possible tenants for the space.
As curator Carrie Canham says: “Without that support and the opportunity of the adjacent building, it would be a very different story for us.”
In June, the leader of Swansea council told the BBC that the museum needed to operate more commercially to compensate for budget cuts, pointing out that it did not have a cafe.
A statement on the council website reads:“Although there will be a £50,000 reduction in our budget for Swansea Museum next year, we expect overall funding for the museum to increase through grants and the generation of more income from commercial opportunities.”
It adds that the cut represents less than 10% of the museum’s annual funding from the council, and says it has been offset by early retirement and voluntary redundancy applications from museum staff.
The Welsh Museums Federation expressed concern in a statement, saying: “We would like to see more support and time given to the museum to enable it to generate its income targets successfully.”
Victoria Rogers, the federation’s president, says most museums in Wales have either had their budget cut in real terms or been given a savings target. This compounds difficulties caused by the low levels of historic investment noted in the Expert Review of Local Museum Provision in Wales 2015.
Concerted effort
Many Welsh museums are already making a concerted effort to diversify their income streams, says Rogers. But such projects are not guaranteed money-spinners.
“Cafes can certainly be part of a museum’s income generation, but they need investment – to build, for staff and to run properly – if they are to make money,” she says. “We are concerned that museum cafes and shops are seen by stakeholders as able to generate the income necessary to offset budget cuts.”
There may be ways for museums to access new funding sources by embedding their work within wider objectives. But two crucialingredientsneededto develop new partnerships and business models are time and capital investment.
Storiel in Bangor opened on a new site in 2016 with the help of a £1.4m Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant. The venue has a cafe (run by a contractor) and a larger shop than in Storiel’s previous incarnation, Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery. Since reopening, visitor figures have risen from 15,000 to 83,000 a year.
Nest Thomas, the principal museums and arts officer at Gwynedd Council, says: “The cafe and shop are crucial because they bring in income that will help contribute towards either a staff post or exhibitions, for example. But they also contribute to the visitor experience.”
Other income-generating ventures include room hire and commission on artwork sales, and the museum is also in the process of setting up a development trust for fundraising.
The council-run museum receives £46,740 a year from Bangor University (about half what the authority contributes), which also loans a large collection to Storiel.
Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth last year received a £916,200 HLF grant for a project that will create a new street-level entrance, cafe and a larger shop, together with a tourist information centre, in a recently vacated building next door. The target for the combined annual revenue from the cafe and shop is £64,000.
The project will appoint a community engagement officer to build the museum’s audience and a sustainability officer to explore income- generating opportunities for two years. After that period, one of these will become a permanent role.
The authority invested £200,000 from its sale of the former tourist information centre into the project and turned down other possible tenants for the space.
As curator Carrie Canham says: “Without that support and the opportunity of the adjacent building, it would be a very different story for us.”