Cultural bodies launch manifesto
Cultural organisations including the Museums Association (MA), Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, National Museum Directors’ Conference (NMDC) and the Association of Independent Museums gathered at the British Museum last month for the launch of Cultural Capital: A Manifesto for the Future.
Pointing to a 7 per cent drop in private investment in the arts in 2008-09 and the transfer of £161.2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the Olympics, the manifesto highlights the estimated £1.5bn that the UK’s museums and galleries contribute to the economy each year, and calls for sustained funding for culture.
Against a backdrop of burgeoning public debt and what the manifesto calls “the longest and deepest recession since the 1930s”, the NMDC chaired a meeting at the Treasury in January between representatives from the Treasury, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and 15 museum directors and finance directors.
Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, who attended the meeting, said: “It was good to have a direct discussion with the Treasury. We shared information and views about the public finances and how national museums contribute to the economy, in the context of the difficulties facing public finances. It felt positive and there was a real sense of them listening.”
An NMDC spokeswoman said it was the first time that she could remember such a large group of national museum directors in the same room as Treasury officials, but emphasised that the NMDC was in regular contact with the Treasury, and had frequent cross-party meetings with the three main political parties’ culture teams.
Meanwhile, the MA held its first free ...Love Museums advocacy training workshop in Norwich last month. Others have been scheduled in Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, Glasgow and Newcastle.
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