If you work in a local authority museum, it's that time of year again - ie when some bright-spark councillor looks at the over-all budget and decides that they can do without a museum service.
But this year it's much worse. The recession means that almost every local authority is looking for cuts, and non-statutory services are bearing the brunt. After a period of relative plenty, lottery-funded refurbishments and central government funding through Renaissance, it feels like scarcity might be back on the agenda.
So it's worth reminding ourselves, and others, what it was like in the days before Renaissance. It's all there in the original report: swingeing cuts to staff resulted in a lack of capacity; education, access and outreach were either non-existent or cut to the bone; opening hours were reduced; exhibition programmes limited; buildings crumbling and collections at risk. In other words a general air of neglect dominated.
It makes miserable reading and no one wants to return to that.
Renaissance has helped turn the situation around but a key caveat of central government funding going directly into regional museums and galleries was that it would be additional cash. So if the government puts extra money into local museums the local authority shouldn't then siphon the cash out of the service in savings, economies, restructures or other mealy-mouthed euphemisms for cuts.
But where are the bodies that represent museums and speak on their behalf when this happens? The Museums Association, the National Museum Directors' Conference and the newly-formed Core Cities Museums Group should be working together to defend what has been achieved so far and speak out against cuts.
There's a danger, in a recession, that the idea of the collective good is jettisoned and that self-interest becomes the order of the day. But the opposite should be true. The imminent arrival of the Renaissance review and the national museum strategy provides an ideal opportunity for a bit of joined-up thinking and, dare we say it, campaigning.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
But this year it's much worse. The recession means that almost every local authority is looking for cuts, and non-statutory services are bearing the brunt. After a period of relative plenty, lottery-funded refurbishments and central government funding through Renaissance, it feels like scarcity might be back on the agenda.
So it's worth reminding ourselves, and others, what it was like in the days before Renaissance. It's all there in the original report: swingeing cuts to staff resulted in a lack of capacity; education, access and outreach were either non-existent or cut to the bone; opening hours were reduced; exhibition programmes limited; buildings crumbling and collections at risk. In other words a general air of neglect dominated.
It makes miserable reading and no one wants to return to that.
Renaissance has helped turn the situation around but a key caveat of central government funding going directly into regional museums and galleries was that it would be additional cash. So if the government puts extra money into local museums the local authority shouldn't then siphon the cash out of the service in savings, economies, restructures or other mealy-mouthed euphemisms for cuts.
But where are the bodies that represent museums and speak on their behalf when this happens? The Museums Association, the National Museum Directors' Conference and the newly-formed Core Cities Museums Group should be working together to defend what has been achieved so far and speak out against cuts.
There's a danger, in a recession, that the idea of the collective good is jettisoned and that self-interest becomes the order of the day. But the opposite should be true. The imminent arrival of the Renaissance review and the national museum strategy provides an ideal opportunity for a bit of joined-up thinking and, dare we say it, campaigning.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
Links
Tough times, Museums Journal March 2009, p28-31
Tough times, Museums Journal March 2009, p28-31
