Funding squeezes, soaring bills and shifts in audience behaviour are posing existential threats to museums, but leaders are determined to take control. Geraldine Kendall Adams reports.
Civic museums in the UK have always been vulnerable to the ebb and flow of the political current. Established during the Victorian “education for all” era, years of inadequate funding meant that, by the end of the 20th century, many were in a neglected state.
Programmes such as England’s 2001 Renaissance in the Regions aimed to revive the fortunes of regional museums by creating a new funding structure backed by central government that would stand the test of time. The picture changed again in 2011 when Arts Council England assumed responsibility for museums in England.
Then came a decade of austerity, when cuts depleted national funding pots and local authority investment in museums fell 27% across the UK...Keep reading on Museums Association.
Civic museums in the UK have always been vulnerable to the ebb and flow of the political current. Established during the Victorian “education for all” era, years of inadequate funding meant that, by the end of the 20th century, many were in a neglected state.
Programmes such as England’s 2001 Renaissance in the Regions aimed to revive the fortunes of regional museums by creating a new funding structure backed by central government that would stand the test of time. The picture changed again in 2011 when Arts Council England assumed responsibility for museums in England.
Then came a decade of austerity, when cuts depleted national funding pots and local authority investment in museums fell 27% across the UK...Keep reading on Museums Association.