An advocacy survey commissioned by Art Fund and the National Museum Directors' Council (NMDC) has demonstrated strong public support for public funding for museums, with nearly three quarters of UK adults believing that councils should fund local museums.
The YouGov survey found that 89% of UK adults think museums are important to UK culture while 76% think local museums add value to their area.
Nearly half of those surveyed (47%) said that museums in the UK should be mostly or entirely funded by government. Only 3% said museums should be entirely funded by private investment or income generation.
Looking specifically at local museums, 74% said local government should provide at least half of their funding, with 45% saying that councils should provide most or all of their funding.
Net current expenditure on museums and galleries by local authorities decreased by 11% in real terms – from £206.27m in 2021/22 to £183.05m in 2022/23 – according to a report published by Arts Council England in January.
The YouGov survey found that 44% of people knew public funding for local museums had gone down since 2022, with only 9% thinking it had stayed the same and 4% thinking it had increased.
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When asked how they would feel if their local museum were to shut, 54% said they would feel disappointed, 41% would feel sad, 19% would be angry and 16% frustrated.
Speaking to MPs and peers at an advocacy event in Westminster last week, Tate director and chair of NMDC, Maria Balshaw, said: “We know the public love museums – in 2023 there were over 60 million visitors to the NMDC member national and major regional museums.
“Seeing such public support for museums makes everything we do worthwhile – and gives us all even more reason to protect and sustain them.”
The event, which was attended by representatives of the Museums Association and other museum leaders, celebrated the impact of museums and highlighted the risks they are currently facing from funding cuts.
Surveys such as this are of course totally absurd motherhood and apple pie stuff. You can believe the arts are nationally and locally important (as I do) but so is plenty else. Any poll should recognise the compromises that have to be made in public funding and what else has to suffer to maintain it. And the frankly stupid question about how you would feel if local museums closed (how many times have I seen that), presumably didn’t quiz the last time they actually paid a visit. You are just asking for rebuttles with stuff like this.