The budget last month was not exactly good news for the arts. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was asked to find a further £20m of savings in 2010-11 with a specific request for £4m of that to come from Arts Council England.
The only other instruction from the Treasury was that the savings should come from "lower priority programmes". We won't know which areas will be affected until the DCMS does its sums but what does the government mean by "lower priority"?
Even before the budget announcement, rumours were circulating that Strategic Commissioning, which enables national and regional museums to work together on education projects, might be cut or subsumed into another funding stream. And the future of Renaissance, which has transformed regional museums' education work, is anything but certain.
But before they get their red pens out, the civil servants would do well to read a new book published this month by the National Museum Directors' Conference (NMDC) and thinktank IPPR. In it, the role that museums can play in engaging young people with culture is explored.
It comes hot on the heels of a report by the Culture and Learning Consortium that sets out a ten point programme making the case for a better cultural offer for all learners, regardless of age or background.
The problem is that the recession, local authority cuts, and the equalisation of Renaissance funding are already starting to bite and in some institutions this is having a disproportionate impact on education.
Budgets are being cut, posts have been deleted or left vacant and projects are being reined in or cancelled altogether. Further cuts will exacerbate this trend.
It would be more than a shame if just when museums and galleries were beginning to really reach out with their formal and informal learning programmes the rug was pulled from under their feet.
Now is not the time for the government to withdraw funding. Money for these projects should be ringfenced at national, local and institutional levels.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
The only other instruction from the Treasury was that the savings should come from "lower priority programmes". We won't know which areas will be affected until the DCMS does its sums but what does the government mean by "lower priority"?
Even before the budget announcement, rumours were circulating that Strategic Commissioning, which enables national and regional museums to work together on education projects, might be cut or subsumed into another funding stream. And the future of Renaissance, which has transformed regional museums' education work, is anything but certain.
But before they get their red pens out, the civil servants would do well to read a new book published this month by the National Museum Directors' Conference (NMDC) and thinktank IPPR. In it, the role that museums can play in engaging young people with culture is explored.
It comes hot on the heels of a report by the Culture and Learning Consortium that sets out a ten point programme making the case for a better cultural offer for all learners, regardless of age or background.
The problem is that the recession, local authority cuts, and the equalisation of Renaissance funding are already starting to bite and in some institutions this is having a disproportionate impact on education.
Budgets are being cut, posts have been deleted or left vacant and projects are being reined in or cancelled altogether. Further cuts will exacerbate this trend.
It would be more than a shame if just when museums and galleries were beginning to really reach out with their formal and informal learning programmes the rug was pulled from under their feet.
Now is not the time for the government to withdraw funding. Money for these projects should be ringfenced at national, local and institutional levels.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
