Vox pop

“I expect the momentum of the ‘trust or bust’ movement to gather pace in 2013. For the squeezed middle (town and smaller city museums) this could mean out of the frying pan… The cash on offer from stakeholders and philanthropists to support essential transformation may fail to meet expectations.

If such museums can become places for their communities to work with professionals to curate and shape their own heritage, they may find a way forward. They may also have to develop greater flexibility to liberate objects from storage for display in other venues, on a larger scale than so far.

For volunteer-led museums the outlook should be good, partly thanks to imaginative Museum Development programmes which ACE has funded until 2015.”


“There’s no doubt 2013 will be a difficult year for many individual museums as they deal with significant funding cuts. But for museums in general I am confident that it will be a good year.

Museums have survived for so long because they are very adept at changing with the times. The current financial situation means that rather than doing ‘more for less’, as the fatuous slogan has it, museums will be doing things differently.

We have to go back to our core values, and the Museums Association’s Museums 2020 initiative has sparked a useful debate about what these are.

For me, the key goal for 2013 will be to develop a nuanced account of the impact of museums in areas ranging from self-realisation to the economy.”


“No, it will not. Some museums have taken all they can and I fear more cuts will push them over the edge. And 2014 and 2015 will not be any better. It is depressing sometimes to see great museums struggling and under the pressure to maintain services and cut budgets.

But I think it is worth focusing on us as a sector. The last time we had such draconian cuts was the 1980s and we are in so much better shape now than we were then. We are better trained, better led, more popular, have better buildings and are more resilient.

Times are hard but I am confident in the museum profession’s ability to advocate clearly the strengths of what we offer and then to deal with the problems that face us with imagination and spirit so that the public still have access to the museums they so obviously love.”


“There is a great deal to look forward to. May will bring the opening of Experience Barnsley, the first museum to share some of the stories of the almost 230,000 people who live in our borough. Most of its collections have been donated. Many are extremely powerful and moving.

Cannon Hall, a museum of the fine and decorative arts, is to be transformed and its collections and gardens reinterpreted.

At Elsecar, a model industrial village and iron workshops, the last Newcomen Engine in the world is to be restored. Exciting prospects but taking place amid difficult times.

There has been real belief in what our museums and sites can provide for the local economy and our communities. This year will provide us with an opportunity, but also the challenge, to demonstrate that even more.”