Janet Barnes is the chief executive of York Museums Trust; Clara Paillard is the culture sector group president of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), London
Dear Janet:
There is, sadly, a very real crisis and it is being caused by Maria Miller, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, and her government’s policies. In the museum sector, people are losing their jobs, venues are closing, education is being cut back and services are being privatised.
I and my union believe that access to arts and culture is a human right, not a commodity or a privilege, and should be for everyone to enjoy. But we fear Miller does not share this view and, if she and her government get their way, the crisis will be the kind of society we leave for our children.
Clara
Dear Clara:
There is a crisis in museums and their social value. Their historical role is not what it was. In the economic challenges that cultural organisations face, museums seem to have real difficulties in responding to change. Cultural institutions cannot assume a previous historical value.
The quality of British culture, from museum curatorship to poetry, is unquestioned. The crisis is in the funding. Nobody can easily meet the cost of yesterday’s values. We are all now obliged to be innovative with regard to funding. How else will we be able to fund them, when finance is a global economic issue?
Janet
Dear Janet:
We are led to believe that budget cuts are necessary. But the government found £800bn to bail out the banks and, in 2013, the wealth of the richest 1,000 people in the UK amounts to £450bn. Ordinary people are made to pay for the bankers’ crisis.
Museums now spend more time applying for funds than anything else. Planned public investment is actually needed in the sector as every £1 invested in arts and culture brings back £4 to the economy. The arts provide nearly one million jobs and cultural businesses contribute £28bn every year to the economy.
Clara
Dear Clara:
Short of a change of government, there is no likelihood of a change in policy. Even a government sympathetic to museums and galleries is unlikely to restore the historic level of funding to the sector.
Therefore, cuts and the obligation to find different ways of working are a fait accompli that the museum profession must work with.
This is particularly acute for the regional museums who face not only central budget cuts but also cuts in local government support.
Janet
Dear Janet:
Local authority executives and museum directors have taken the position that they have to manage the funding cuts to the detriment of visitors, the public and staff who work in museums. Fatalism is not one of the PCS’s mottos.
All the rights gained over the years by workers, civil rights campaigners, and environmentalists have come from people fi ghting back. A good example is the campaign to save the National Media Museum in Bradford, when people from a wide-range of backgrounds united in a campaign to stop its potential closure.
Change is possible, hope is necessary and we need a united response from the arts and culture sector to stop the devastation led by this government of millionaires.
Clara
Dear Clara:
Fatalism, as far as I am concerned, would be to hope for a political policy change that in all rationality is almost certainly not now going to come about, no matter who forms a government. Nor is outright opposition to cuts by the museum sector likely to be the way to maintain services.
Innovation and cooperation are our best effective response. No longer can we assume that previously maintained cultural values will continue to be totally paid for by local and central government.
Janet
Dear Janet:
There is, sadly, a very real crisis and it is being caused by Maria Miller, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, and her government’s policies. In the museum sector, people are losing their jobs, venues are closing, education is being cut back and services are being privatised.
I and my union believe that access to arts and culture is a human right, not a commodity or a privilege, and should be for everyone to enjoy. But we fear Miller does not share this view and, if she and her government get their way, the crisis will be the kind of society we leave for our children.
Clara
Dear Clara:
There is a crisis in museums and their social value. Their historical role is not what it was. In the economic challenges that cultural organisations face, museums seem to have real difficulties in responding to change. Cultural institutions cannot assume a previous historical value.
The quality of British culture, from museum curatorship to poetry, is unquestioned. The crisis is in the funding. Nobody can easily meet the cost of yesterday’s values. We are all now obliged to be innovative with regard to funding. How else will we be able to fund them, when finance is a global economic issue?
Janet
Dear Janet:
We are led to believe that budget cuts are necessary. But the government found £800bn to bail out the banks and, in 2013, the wealth of the richest 1,000 people in the UK amounts to £450bn. Ordinary people are made to pay for the bankers’ crisis.
Museums now spend more time applying for funds than anything else. Planned public investment is actually needed in the sector as every £1 invested in arts and culture brings back £4 to the economy. The arts provide nearly one million jobs and cultural businesses contribute £28bn every year to the economy.
Clara
Dear Clara:
Short of a change of government, there is no likelihood of a change in policy. Even a government sympathetic to museums and galleries is unlikely to restore the historic level of funding to the sector.
Therefore, cuts and the obligation to find different ways of working are a fait accompli that the museum profession must work with.
This is particularly acute for the regional museums who face not only central budget cuts but also cuts in local government support.
Janet
Dear Janet:
Local authority executives and museum directors have taken the position that they have to manage the funding cuts to the detriment of visitors, the public and staff who work in museums. Fatalism is not one of the PCS’s mottos.
All the rights gained over the years by workers, civil rights campaigners, and environmentalists have come from people fi ghting back. A good example is the campaign to save the National Media Museum in Bradford, when people from a wide-range of backgrounds united in a campaign to stop its potential closure.
Change is possible, hope is necessary and we need a united response from the arts and culture sector to stop the devastation led by this government of millionaires.
Clara
Dear Clara:
Fatalism, as far as I am concerned, would be to hope for a political policy change that in all rationality is almost certainly not now going to come about, no matter who forms a government. Nor is outright opposition to cuts by the museum sector likely to be the way to maintain services.
Innovation and cooperation are our best effective response. No longer can we assume that previously maintained cultural values will continue to be totally paid for by local and central government.
Janet
