Editorial | Civic museums in perilous state

When the English Civic Museums Network (ECMN) was set up in 2015, the country was a different place in many senses. David Cameron was prime minister and George Osborne his chancellor, Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour party, and the UK was part of the EU.

Eight years on, we are on our fourth prime minister since Cameron, who has since returned to government as the foreign secretary, Osborne has left politics and is dealing with a new set of challenges as the chairman of the British Museum, Corbyn has been replaced by Kier Starmer, and we are still dealing with the fallout from the 2016 Brexit vote.

But for civic museums, many challenges remain the same: maintaining infrastructure; managing complex collections; and securing funding. In many ways, the situation has become even more difficult, with the ECMN estimating that services have faced 60% cuts to core funding in the past five years.

As a result, many are facing an existential crisis and worry whether they can continue to operate.

So, what’s to be done? Several talks at this year’s Museums Association Conference addressed the challenges facing civic museums, including asking whether the creation of a national strategy for museums in England would make a difference.

One session looked at emerging priorities for the sector, while another gave delegates the chance to explore the shared issues and solutions for the crisis in civic museums across the UK.

There is still money in the UK’s museum sector, but is it being spent on the right things in the right places? There always seems to be backing from private and public funders for capital projects, but securing sustained and reliable support for running costs is far more challenging.

Obviously, new and refurbished museum buildings have many benefits, 
as shown by projects that have opened  this year, including major redevelopments of Manchester Museum, the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and London’s National Portrait Gallery.

But once contractors have left and the doors are open, museums still need sufficient budgets to employ enough staff to engage audiences, develop collections and operate the venues.