The election of the New Labour government in 1997 ushered in a period of significant change in museums. The government's mantra of 'kids, community, economy and modernising delivery' coincided with a growing acceptance within museums and galleries that they should be 'for the many, not the few'.
Since then, millions of pounds have been pumped in to museums and galleries - around £30m a year to provide free entry to England's national museums, and a further £70m into regional museums via Renaissance in the Regions.
But so far the effects of all this money have been hard to interpret. Individual museums, such as the V&A, have seen spectacular rises in visitors, but other museums have suggested that they may be looking at drops in visitors and spend.
Last month, the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA) published two sets of Mori data: one on visitors across the UK, surveyed in February 2004 and comparable with a survey in 1999; and new 'baseline' figures for the nine regional 'hub' museums affected by Renaissance in the Regions. The UK-wide survey suggests that visits to museums are increasing, although there has been no radical change in the social profile of visitors.
Overall, the survey - conducted face-to-face with more than 4,000 UK residents - indicates that visitors to museums increased from 35 to 37 per cent of the adult population between 1999 and 2004.
Andy Martin, one of the co-authors of the museum report, argues that this is statistically valid and while it appears slight, equates to almost one million people. Still, it also suggests that the 'bulge' created by free entry in 2001 - which saw indications that visitors may have increased to 45 per cent of the population -has been evened out.
'Free entry to national museums saw visitors rocket up, but since then it has started to go down,' Martin told Museums Journal. 'I think you would expect that: when it was new there was a lot of publicity, people will go and try things and then say "OK, well I've done that now".'
The latest survey shows that visiting museums and galleries is still a very popular activity: only libraries (51 per cent) and cinemas (59 per cent) attract more. Visits to the performing arts (33 per cent in total), live sporting events (28 per cent) and theme parks (23 per cent) fall far behind.
But the higher an individual's social class, household income and education, the more likely they are to visit museums (something that is also true of all cultural activities with the exception of theme parks and zoos, which appeal equally across all social classes).
While visitors to museums have increased across all classes, those in the C2 (skilled manual labouring) group, D (semi and unskilled) and E (people living at subsistence levels) still do not match their proportions in British society.
Non visitors in these groups are also much more likely to describe themselves as 'not interested' in museums - although only a few think that museums are 'boring' or 'not for people like them'.
A significant proportion of the poorest non-visitors think that museums charge too much for entry, which means that they either don't know that many are free, or the museums that are nearest to them or most interesting to them charge. However, once C2DE visitors attend they are highly likely to visit again.
Mark Wood, the chairman of MLA, said that overall the results were 'very encouraging'. He acknowledged that the figures for D and E groups suggested more work is needed to attract and retain these groups but added 'this is a very difficult market: not just for museums but for all kinds of cultural activities. There are early indications of successes via Renaissance in the Regions, and I think the more we focus on these target groups the more we'll see improvements.'
Helen Wilkinson, the MA's policy officer, said the research proves that free entry on its own wasn't the way to diversify visitors, although she said it certainly wasn't a failed policy. 'A lot of the problem is about addressing people's expectations: the evidence shows that if you can get people to try out a museum, then there is a high possibility that they will come back.'
www.mla.gov.uk
Since then, millions of pounds have been pumped in to museums and galleries - around £30m a year to provide free entry to England's national museums, and a further £70m into regional museums via Renaissance in the Regions.
But so far the effects of all this money have been hard to interpret. Individual museums, such as the V&A, have seen spectacular rises in visitors, but other museums have suggested that they may be looking at drops in visitors and spend.
Last month, the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA) published two sets of Mori data: one on visitors across the UK, surveyed in February 2004 and comparable with a survey in 1999; and new 'baseline' figures for the nine regional 'hub' museums affected by Renaissance in the Regions. The UK-wide survey suggests that visits to museums are increasing, although there has been no radical change in the social profile of visitors.
Overall, the survey - conducted face-to-face with more than 4,000 UK residents - indicates that visitors to museums increased from 35 to 37 per cent of the adult population between 1999 and 2004.
Andy Martin, one of the co-authors of the museum report, argues that this is statistically valid and while it appears slight, equates to almost one million people. Still, it also suggests that the 'bulge' created by free entry in 2001 - which saw indications that visitors may have increased to 45 per cent of the population -has been evened out.
'Free entry to national museums saw visitors rocket up, but since then it has started to go down,' Martin told Museums Journal. 'I think you would expect that: when it was new there was a lot of publicity, people will go and try things and then say "OK, well I've done that now".'
The latest survey shows that visiting museums and galleries is still a very popular activity: only libraries (51 per cent) and cinemas (59 per cent) attract more. Visits to the performing arts (33 per cent in total), live sporting events (28 per cent) and theme parks (23 per cent) fall far behind.
But the higher an individual's social class, household income and education, the more likely they are to visit museums (something that is also true of all cultural activities with the exception of theme parks and zoos, which appeal equally across all social classes).
While visitors to museums have increased across all classes, those in the C2 (skilled manual labouring) group, D (semi and unskilled) and E (people living at subsistence levels) still do not match their proportions in British society.
Non visitors in these groups are also much more likely to describe themselves as 'not interested' in museums - although only a few think that museums are 'boring' or 'not for people like them'.
A significant proportion of the poorest non-visitors think that museums charge too much for entry, which means that they either don't know that many are free, or the museums that are nearest to them or most interesting to them charge. However, once C2DE visitors attend they are highly likely to visit again.
Mark Wood, the chairman of MLA, said that overall the results were 'very encouraging'. He acknowledged that the figures for D and E groups suggested more work is needed to attract and retain these groups but added 'this is a very difficult market: not just for museums but for all kinds of cultural activities. There are early indications of successes via Renaissance in the Regions, and I think the more we focus on these target groups the more we'll see improvements.'
Helen Wilkinson, the MA's policy officer, said the research proves that free entry on its own wasn't the way to diversify visitors, although she said it certainly wasn't a failed policy. 'A lot of the problem is about addressing people's expectations: the evidence shows that if you can get people to try out a museum, then there is a high possibility that they will come back.'
www.mla.gov.uk
