Scotland makes capital gains - Museums Association

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Scotland makes capital gains

Despite finances being tight, new-builds and redevelopments are in progress in Dunfermline, Dundee and Aberdeen. By Gareth Harris
Work has recently started on the Dunfermline Museum and Art Gallery, which is just one of several large-scale capital projects under way in Scotland, highlighting the sector’s ambition even in the face of funding cuts.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is behind many of the projects. Funders for the Dunfermline Museum and Art Gallery, which is to open in 2017, include the HLF (£2.8m), Fife Council (£8.3m) and Carnegie Dunfermline Trust (£1m).

The redevelopment of Aberdeen Art Gallery, which will be completed by 2017, was kickstarted by a £10m HLF fund secured last autumn. The council has pledged £10m from the non-housing capital fund and will underwrite a further £10m (a fundraising campaign has been launched to raise this budget share).

Other projects backed by the HLF include the relocation of the Hunterian Museum from the University of Glasgow to nearby Kelvin Hall (HLF funding of £4.6m), and the V&A Museum of Design Dundee, which received £9.4m early last year.

Last October, the HLF gave £1.3m to help fund the transformation of two hangars at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian. A grant from the HLF is often the key to all other funding falling into place.

“HLF funding has definitely been a catalyst and enabler,” says Christine Rew, the art gallery and museums manager in Aberdeen. “It is an external assessment that shows the redevelopment project is viable, and has allowed us to approach other benefactors.”

David Gaimster, the director of the Hunterian, is among those who think funding for capital projects could be more strategic. “Given the scale of the V&A Dundee, and its predicted impact on the HLF in Scotland, we are all concerned that our principal funding bids should be non-competitive and complementary,” he says.

As a result of this, organisations including the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Life and the University of Glasgow are sharing and discussing their plans to ensure that there is a more strategic approach to capital investment in museums in Scotland.

How these capital projects will develop in a financially sustainable way, at a time of falling public sector budgets, is a concern. But Rew points out that Aberdeen council has revenue projections for the reopening of the art gallery and beyond, and there is a business plan in place.

But an anonymous museum consultant says the challenge Scottish museums and galleries always face is how to generate additional income from commercial and philanthropic sources.

Some projects are progressing without HLF backing. The Hospitalfield arts centre in Arbroath has secured £1m in funding from Creative Scotland and £500,000 from Historic Scotland for a £3.3m capital development (its initial bid to the HLF was turned down).

Director Lucy Byatt says: “There is extremely effective stewardship of contemporary culture through Creative Scotland. It will not be easy to raise the remaining funds, but we have a vibrant approach – and this is half the battle.”


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