Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has reacted to financial uncertainty in the sector by pausing its grants programme.
An MGS statement said that the decision was made in response to the fact that “museums are facing a range of significant challenges, as they seek to recover from Covid – feedback from the sector has indicated a slow return of visitors, lower visitor spend, rising cost of living impacting on visitors and staff, energy costs and rapid rise in capital costs”. The organisation took the decision to stop accepting grant applications last month.
“Across Scotland the sector has communicated to us their rapidly changing financial situations,” said MGS CEO Lucy Casot. “We need to ensure that the remaining funding we have available for the sector this year is appropriately targeted to our sector’s needs and priorities at this time.”
MGS said that during this period of paused activity, it is working on an alternative, targeted programme of support to meet the evolving needs of the sector. It will launch this as soon as it can.
MGS is reviewing how its grants programme can provide optimum support to museums in the current environment. It is considering whether its current programme of Small Grants and Museum Development funding is the most effective way to do this.
The organisation is looking at whether the Museum Development Fund deadline on 31 October should go ahead.
