Keith Merrin, director, National Glass Centre at the University of Sunderland
“It’s brilliant that there seems to be an unquenchable thirst from communities to engage with, explore and share their local heritage. However, so much of this activity relies on the support or involvement of local museums, archives and libraries, which at this point in time are often struggling to survive and cutting back services. The opportunity is for the HLF to use its funding to ensure that these partnerships between communities and their local museums can help support the financial sustainability of those museums as well as delivering the outcomes of projects.”
Eric Langham, founder, Barker Langham
“The HLF must take more risks. At a time when budgets are being slashed across our sector, the Lottery should step up to support riskier, edgier and more ambitious projects.
Otherwise only the safest and largest organisations will survive, and more creative and aspirational initiatives will be squeezed out. These bold projects are the ones that really prove the power of culture to enrich and transform lives, which is what the HLF should be all about. Promoting this kind of practice will build a resilient, vibrant and distinctive heritage sector.”
Rachel Morris, director for content and learning, Metaphor
“The HLF has transformed UK culture for a generation with wonderful capital projects. But now the cultural sector is changing, and with so many museums outside London lacking money, staffing and therefore skills, we need the HLF to find new, revenue-based ways to help them. These have to include salaries, capacity- building, help with creating income streams. Investing in small museums is intrinsically more risky, but now absolutely necessary. The capital projects have raised the standards in our museums dramatically, but these projects won’t survive if the museums don’t.’”
Alistair Brown, policy officer, Museums Association
“It’s an interesting time to take the reins at the HLF. Many local museums and heritage sites are facing huge funding problems. In that context, the HLF needs to invest strategically to ensure that regional and civic museums can survive the public funding slump, including in skills and young people.
It needs to work with Arts Council England and others to ensure that funding is not duplicated. And it needs to make some tough decisions about the extent to which HLF funding will remain ‘additional’ to core public funding.”
“It’s brilliant that there seems to be an unquenchable thirst from communities to engage with, explore and share their local heritage. However, so much of this activity relies on the support or involvement of local museums, archives and libraries, which at this point in time are often struggling to survive and cutting back services. The opportunity is for the HLF to use its funding to ensure that these partnerships between communities and their local museums can help support the financial sustainability of those museums as well as delivering the outcomes of projects.”
Eric Langham, founder, Barker Langham
“The HLF must take more risks. At a time when budgets are being slashed across our sector, the Lottery should step up to support riskier, edgier and more ambitious projects.
Otherwise only the safest and largest organisations will survive, and more creative and aspirational initiatives will be squeezed out. These bold projects are the ones that really prove the power of culture to enrich and transform lives, which is what the HLF should be all about. Promoting this kind of practice will build a resilient, vibrant and distinctive heritage sector.”
Rachel Morris, director for content and learning, Metaphor
“The HLF has transformed UK culture for a generation with wonderful capital projects. But now the cultural sector is changing, and with so many museums outside London lacking money, staffing and therefore skills, we need the HLF to find new, revenue-based ways to help them. These have to include salaries, capacity- building, help with creating income streams. Investing in small museums is intrinsically more risky, but now absolutely necessary. The capital projects have raised the standards in our museums dramatically, but these projects won’t survive if the museums don’t.’”
Alistair Brown, policy officer, Museums Association
“It’s an interesting time to take the reins at the HLF. Many local museums and heritage sites are facing huge funding problems. In that context, the HLF needs to invest strategically to ensure that regional and civic museums can survive the public funding slump, including in skills and young people.
It needs to work with Arts Council England and others to ensure that funding is not duplicated. And it needs to make some tough decisions about the extent to which HLF funding will remain ‘additional’ to core public funding.”
