Blog: Pity the homeless

Stuart Davies, 01.12.2009
"Are we seeing a shift in priorities away from small museums?" Asks Stuart Davies

At any one time there are a large number of museums and museum collections looking for a new home, or just any home. It is difficult to say whether or not it is worse now - in a recession - than it is at any other time (we do not keep sufficient records about ourselves as a sector).


But I do seem to be dealing with quite a few - in my ‘day job’ as a museums and heritage consultant - at the moment. They are all grappling with the same basic issue: securing a long-term home.
The Museum of Oxford has been in the same space in Oxford Town Hall since it opened in 1975, hailed as a breakthrough in how urban history should be presented in a museum.
 
Today it is looking a little tired, and its partial location in a basement would no longer be considered appropriate if it were being planned today. But the current threat to the museum is local government cuts. Oxford City Council is proposing to close the museum at the end of next March.

Arundel Museum, coincidentally also founded in 1975, has already been evicted (in 2007) from its Georgian house home, by Arun District Council. The council wanted to refurbish the large house in the High Street and significantly increase the revenue yield from it.


Unfortunately the recession has overtaken its plans and it sits empty. The Arundel Museum Society has meanwhile applied for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to build a new museum opposite the gates to Arundel Castle. At the same location, their temporary home sits in a car park - a deep blue sea container.

At Crawley the local authority is working very hard to try and find an alternative home for the museum of the Crawley Museum Society. Their museum in part of a house in Goffs Park is inadequate, and alternative options - including a vacant 1960s pub in another park - are being investigated.

Eastbourne has not had a local museum since the Towner Art Gallery was relocated to the town’s cultural quarter and reopened in a Rik Mather building. After three years of fruitless discussions around finding a new home, the whole issue is being revived with greater vigour as part of developing a cultural strategy for the town.

All of these places have historical collections (admittedly of varying importance and attractiveness), and their publics and out-of-town visitors all deserve to benefit from having a museum.


But small town museums are perhaps a little out of fashion. Their supporters - and they still have active volunteers and advocates - seem uniformly elderly. The museums have lost the fresh enthusiasm that marked the years of their foundation and early growth; they are now up against the wall and being squeezed out of their homes.


Are the examples I happen to know about untypical, or are we seeing a fundamental shift in community priorities away from small museums that do not have the resources for fashionable outreach programmes and high profile events?

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Ben, Museum Development Manager, MLA London (MJ Subscriber, MP Subscriber)
22.12.2009, 10:56
This is very interesting Stuart. I don't think its a coincidence that the examples you have noticed are predominantly local authority. We've had our casualties in London, Wandsworth and the Livesey being the best known examples. I think with LA efficiency targets adding to the effects of recession in next 3 years, its going to get a lot worse. Its a particular issue in London where, despite the cutting edge role in community participation work which is widely recognised by museum professionals, these small museums generally remain at risk because their role sometimes seems peripheral to key decision makers in LAs. The LA Museums Improvement Programme which we are running and in which nearly all London museums are participating has certainly stabilised the situation. But the pressures are going to remain severe. That is why, working with English Heritage and culture heads in London, we are commissioning a study next year called 'Heritage Change'. Consulting closely with all the LA culture heads and museum managers, the study will look at the potential for shared services, shared management and even alternative governance options. For those who believe that the sector raising these issues itself carries risk, it could be argued that there is a far higher degree of risk in doing nothing and trying to stay 'underneath the radar'. The writing is on the wall for LA cultural services, indeed for any LA service that isn't ready to pro-actively come up with its own suggestions for how it might be able to strengthen itself for the future. Capitalising on the close joint working with boroughs we have already established through our wider London Cultural Improvement Programme, our aim is to work with the LA museum and heritage sector to work through next year's study, and to jointly come up with some proposals for a strengthened structure for delivery of LA museum/heritage services in London.
Anonymous (MA Member)
12.12.2009, 17:26
Whilst agreeing that 'canny' councils may well be looking to recoup some money by withdrawing support for local museums by clawing back buildings or grants others have cottoned on to their value.

Town museums, and I write from a very small town museum, hit both the green agenda - locally produced, locally sourced and the tourism necessity - don't just drive through the town, stop and spend here.

Here in one of John Prescott's growth point the museum also serves as a point of reference for all the incomers. Tiny outreach events like an ESOL course or a community gallery have a huge effect and 'high profile events' attracting perhaps an additional 60 people raise not only income but also new Friends and stakeholders.

In the museum world as elsewhere, small can indeed be beautiful. I would love to see a Conference 2010 theme on this and the changing role of town museums.
Patrick (MA Member)
30.11.2009, 14:21
Certainly there has been pressure on local authority budgets for the last few years, and museums, as non-statutory services, barring a few honorable exceptions, have been on the receiving end of cuts from councils across the country.

Let's hope that, as the inevitable cuts come next April, they are not fatal.