Vivacity, the culture and leisure trust that has taken over the operation of Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, may seek to run other museums as part of its business plan.
The museum is among several council-run facilities, including the city’s Key Theatre, to transfer to the trust, which is applying for charitable status.
Three hundred cultural and sports services staff have had their employment transferred to Vivacity, which has been given a 25-year contract and is chaired by Shelagh Smith, a lawyer and former board member of Arts East and Screen East.
Smith said councils were expecting budget cuts in discretionary services, but that moving to trust status would allow funding sources not open to the council to be investigated.
Trust status also gives the museum exemption from business rates. “We have an £8m business plan and this will give us an opportunity to do more things more quickly,” said Smith.
“If, for example, another museum in another borough wanted us to run the service for them, we could take on the contract. But that is not something we are looking at in the first 12 months.”
Smith said initial plans centred on a revamp of the Peterborough museum, which is in the latter stages of a Heritage Lottery application for £3m of matched funding. The nine-month project is scheduled to start in January.
Becoming a charity was especially important now, according to Smith. “The financial climate was much easier 10 years ago,” she said, but added that staff were “pretty upbeat”.
“For the first time, theysee themselves as part of a creative organisation in which they have a real impact.”
Meanwhile, Falkirk Council is considering the establishment of a community services trust that will cover libraries, the arts and museums, as well as sport and bereavement services.
A business case is being developed, but it was “by no means certain” that a trust will be created.
The museum is among several council-run facilities, including the city’s Key Theatre, to transfer to the trust, which is applying for charitable status.
Three hundred cultural and sports services staff have had their employment transferred to Vivacity, which has been given a 25-year contract and is chaired by Shelagh Smith, a lawyer and former board member of Arts East and Screen East.
Smith said councils were expecting budget cuts in discretionary services, but that moving to trust status would allow funding sources not open to the council to be investigated.
Trust status also gives the museum exemption from business rates. “We have an £8m business plan and this will give us an opportunity to do more things more quickly,” said Smith.
“If, for example, another museum in another borough wanted us to run the service for them, we could take on the contract. But that is not something we are looking at in the first 12 months.”
Smith said initial plans centred on a revamp of the Peterborough museum, which is in the latter stages of a Heritage Lottery application for £3m of matched funding. The nine-month project is scheduled to start in January.
Becoming a charity was especially important now, according to Smith. “The financial climate was much easier 10 years ago,” she said, but added that staff were “pretty upbeat”.
“For the first time, theysee themselves as part of a creative organisation in which they have a real impact.”
Meanwhile, Falkirk Council is considering the establishment of a community services trust that will cover libraries, the arts and museums, as well as sport and bereavement services.
A business case is being developed, but it was “by no means certain” that a trust will be created.
