As museums face up to the cuts outlined in the spending review, Museums Journal has launched Cuts Monitor to allow readers to comment on the impact of the cuts.
Cuts Monitor will track the impact of cuts and assess how they are shaping the sector. Sharon Heal, editor of Museums Journal said; “Unless you tell us tell us how bad it is, we can’t campaign on your behalf.”
Speaking at the Survival of the Fittest session at the Museums Association’s conference in Manchester, David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool, said museums should be open about how cuts are affecting them.
“It’s going to be painful and I think museums need to show that pain rather than pretend it’s not happening,” he said. “The more pain we are able to demonstrate, the better chance we have of an early recovery, and changing things as we get nearer to another election.”
Comments can be added to the Cuts Monitor page or on Twitter using the hashtag #museumcuts
Already comments on the website and twitter feed have revealed a museum reducing storage costs by 65%, plans to sell a museum building, and a 75% cut in the conservation budget of a local authority museum.