The Art Fund's criticism followed last month's publication of what it says is the largest ever survey of museum and gallery acquisitions.
The research, which 305 institutions took part in, found that 70 per cent of UK museums now acquire objects mainly or solely by gift and 60 per cent allocate no funds at all to acquisitions. The Art Fund says this exposes a crisis in funding and blames central and local government for not recognising the importance of collecting.
'If you hear a speech by a minister, they start off saying nice things about collections, but quickly go on to a monotonous list of aims for social inclusion, education and access,' said David Barrie, the director of the Art Fund.
'These are all very good, but they are not ultimately what museums are about. Either ministers don't understand that museums and galleries exist for their collections, or they understand, but don't care.'
Barrie said it was an 'incontrovertible fact' that money for acquisitions 'was just not there'. He also blamed funding bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), for bowing to 'political pressure to respond to the government agenda of outreach and social inclusion'.
The HLF responded by saying it has supported 85 per cent of all applications to fund acquisitions it has received since 1994. Stephen Johnson, the director of operations at the HLF and the head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), was unapologetic about the criteria the HLF uses for supporting applications, which are linked to the objectives of access, learning, conservation and involvement set out in its 2002-2007 strategic plan.
'For each of the applications we get, these are precisely the criteria that every application has to show it can deliver,' Johnson says.
Many of the issues on collecting feature in the Museums Association's Collections for the Future report, which was published last year.
Maurice Davies, the deputy director of the MA, said: 'The Art Fund is a bit unsure about the relationship between, and relative importance of, collecting and learning and access. The point of a museum collecting something is to provide access to it.'
Last month Mark Jones, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, said in a letter to the chairwoman of the HLF, Liz Forgan, that the fall in money from the HLF and the NHMF was 'extraordinary and worrying'. He said a minimum of £50m a year of public expenditure should be devoted to acquisitions.
Simon Stephens
The research, which 305 institutions took part in, found that 70 per cent of UK museums now acquire objects mainly or solely by gift and 60 per cent allocate no funds at all to acquisitions. The Art Fund says this exposes a crisis in funding and blames central and local government for not recognising the importance of collecting.
'If you hear a speech by a minister, they start off saying nice things about collections, but quickly go on to a monotonous list of aims for social inclusion, education and access,' said David Barrie, the director of the Art Fund.
'These are all very good, but they are not ultimately what museums are about. Either ministers don't understand that museums and galleries exist for their collections, or they understand, but don't care.'
Barrie said it was an 'incontrovertible fact' that money for acquisitions 'was just not there'. He also blamed funding bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), for bowing to 'political pressure to respond to the government agenda of outreach and social inclusion'.
The HLF responded by saying it has supported 85 per cent of all applications to fund acquisitions it has received since 1994. Stephen Johnson, the director of operations at the HLF and the head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), was unapologetic about the criteria the HLF uses for supporting applications, which are linked to the objectives of access, learning, conservation and involvement set out in its 2002-2007 strategic plan.
'For each of the applications we get, these are precisely the criteria that every application has to show it can deliver,' Johnson says.
Many of the issues on collecting feature in the Museums Association's Collections for the Future report, which was published last year.
Maurice Davies, the deputy director of the MA, said: 'The Art Fund is a bit unsure about the relationship between, and relative importance of, collecting and learning and access. The point of a museum collecting something is to provide access to it.'
Last month Mark Jones, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, said in a letter to the chairwoman of the HLF, Liz Forgan, that the fall in money from the HLF and the NHMF was 'extraordinary and worrying'. He said a minimum of £50m a year of public expenditure should be devoted to acquisitions.
Simon Stephens
