Glasgow proposes closing five museums on Mondays
Simon Stephens, 16.12.2009
Glasgow City Council is looking to save £60m in 2010-11
Glasgow City Council is proposing to close five museums on Mondays as part of wider cost-cutting measures planned for across the local authority next year.
The city’s museums and galleries are operated by Culture and Sport Glasgow, a charitable trust set up in 2007 to deliver the local authority’s cultural, leisure and outdoor recreational facilities.
The council wants to save £60m in 2010-11 and Culture and Sport Glasgow will have to make savings of £3.4m in the next financial year.
The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art and the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens are among the five museums proposed for closure on Mondays. The council’s flagship sites – the Gallery of Modern Art and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum – will not be affected.
The Museum of Transport was to close in April anyway, for the collection to be moved to the Riverside Museum, which is being built on the banks of the river Clyde. The £74m project is not expected to be affected by the council cuts.
Despite having to save £3.4m, Culture and Sport Glasgow said there would be no compulsory redundancies, although salaries would be frozen.
Head of arts and museums at Culture and Sport Glasgow, Mark O’Neill, who recently started a six-month secondment as director of research at the trust, said: “We have tried to learn from the deep cuts of the mid-1990s, when Glasgow Museums lost nearly 120 staff. Our priority is to maintain a quality public service and sustain core expertise, which takes years to rebuild once it is lost.”
Glasgow City Council is expected to meet at the end of January to vote on the proposals.
Glasgow is not the only museum service in Scotland facing cuts. Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has been surveying its members, including local authorities, to find out how the recession is affecting them.
An MGS statement said: “One of the biggest challenges faced by public sector services is that they face budget cuts at a time when footfall to museums and galleries in Scotland is up – in some places by about 8.5 per cent. This growing demand could potentially be undermined by a lack of investment.”
The city’s museums and galleries are operated by Culture and Sport Glasgow, a charitable trust set up in 2007 to deliver the local authority’s cultural, leisure and outdoor recreational facilities.
The council wants to save £60m in 2010-11 and Culture and Sport Glasgow will have to make savings of £3.4m in the next financial year.
The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art and the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens are among the five museums proposed for closure on Mondays. The council’s flagship sites – the Gallery of Modern Art and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum – will not be affected.
The Museum of Transport was to close in April anyway, for the collection to be moved to the Riverside Museum, which is being built on the banks of the river Clyde. The £74m project is not expected to be affected by the council cuts.
Despite having to save £3.4m, Culture and Sport Glasgow said there would be no compulsory redundancies, although salaries would be frozen.
Head of arts and museums at Culture and Sport Glasgow, Mark O’Neill, who recently started a six-month secondment as director of research at the trust, said: “We have tried to learn from the deep cuts of the mid-1990s, when Glasgow Museums lost nearly 120 staff. Our priority is to maintain a quality public service and sustain core expertise, which takes years to rebuild once it is lost.”
Glasgow City Council is expected to meet at the end of January to vote on the proposals.
Glasgow is not the only museum service in Scotland facing cuts. Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has been surveying its members, including local authorities, to find out how the recession is affecting them.
An MGS statement said: “One of the biggest challenges faced by public sector services is that they face budget cuts at a time when footfall to museums and galleries in Scotland is up – in some places by about 8.5 per cent. This growing demand could potentially be undermined by a lack of investment.”
