Every year, the Museums Association conducts a survey of its individual and institutional members across the UK. Our Members Survey 2024/25 received more than 500 responses from people working in or with museums, offering a valuable insight into the current state of the sector.

Our latest survey shows that the pressures on museums have increased significantly over the past year, with knock-on impacts to public engagement and access, collections care and management, and the wellbeing of the museum workforce.

According to our Members Survey 2024/25:

  • 61% of respondents say their museum, or the museum they work with, is planning cuts in services in 2024/25, compared to 51% the previous year.

Of the respondents whose organisations are facing cuts:

  • 63% say this will result in a reduction in public programming, compared to 50% the previous year.
  • 55% say funding cuts will result in job losses, compared to 42% the previous year.
  • 46% say funding cuts will result in a reduction in learning and engagement, similar to the previous year (47%).
  • 42% say funding cuts will result in a reduction in collections care, compared to 39% the previous year.
  • 36% say funding cuts will result in reduced operational services, compared to 35% the previous year.
  • 33% say funding cuts will result in reduced opening hours, similar to the previous year (35%).
  • 16% say funding cuts will result in closures, compared to 14% the previous year.

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In their comments, respondents gave more details of how their institutions are being affected by financial pressures.

These impacts include:

  • Recruitment freezes, redundancies and restructures, resulting in:
    – Recruitment difficulties and skills gaps
    – Loss of decades’ worth of knowledge and experience
    – Low staff morale and frequent burnout
    – Uncertainty and lack of employment stability
    – Increased pressure on remaining staff, who are often expected to maintain the same level of service despite a much-depleted workforce
    – Overreliance on volunteers and difficulty in retaining a volunteer workforce due to reduced staff capacity.
  • Reduced public access, including cuts to opening hours, seasonal closures, the introduction or increase of admission charges, and the risk of closure.
  • Delays or cancellations of planned exhibitions, projects and public engagement activities.
  • Increased difficulty with long-term planning.
  • Increased difficulty in running outreach work, with a knock-on impact on socially engaged practice such as working with under-served communities.
  • Increased difficulty in meeting best practice standards around curation and collections care, and concern that income generation has taken priority over curatorial decision-making.

Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association, says: “Our Members Survey provides valuable data on the state of the sector, and there are some very worrying resulting headlines in the research. We know there is huge financial pressure on the sector, especially civic museums, but it is deeply concerning that museums of all types and scale are now struggling.

“The long tail of Covid and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis are still rippling through the sector and resulting in budget cuts, job losses and potential closures in all four nations of the UK. Museums and museum workers have proved themselves to be resilient time and time again but there is a limit to what can be done without strategic investment at a local and national level.

“The £20m Museum Renewal Fund for England is hugely welcome news, and we are delighted that the massive contribution that museums make to civic society has been recognised by the UK Government and grateful on behalf of our members who are facing extreme pressure from every angle at the moment.

“We have been advocating alongside other sector bodies for investment in civic museums and this will hopefully provide some breathing space for some institutions while we continue to make the case for strategic investment in the whole sector across the UK.”