Welsh Government earmarks £3.2m for museum repairs

The Welsh Government will provide an additional £3.2m to “protect and preserve” its cultural institutions, including the National Museum – Amgueddfa Cymru – in Cardiff and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice, Lesley Griffiths, confirmed a further £500,000 would be made available to help improve storage facilities and protect important collections at local and independent museums and archives across Wales. She said ministers had listened to concerns over intense financial pressures facing all the country's cultural institutions and were acting to mitigate those difficulties but acknowledged it was “a very small amount”, adding, “That’s all I can find this year".

The money comes from scrapping plans for a museum of north Wales and an anchor site for the National Contemporary Art Gallery scheme, which is currently dispersed across nine art galleries. "We can’t have a new building when we’ve got iconic buildings like this that need funding," said Griffiths.

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The announcement comes after Amgueddfa Cymru Chief Executive Jane Richardson warned in April that issues including water leakage and failing electricity, coupled with a £3m grant reduction handed down by the Welsh Government, could force the museum to close unless it received more funding.

Initially, ministers defended the grant reduction, which was part of sweeping cuts to arts and cultural organisations that reprioritised £16m of funding away from culture, sport, and tourism after the government said it had been forced to make “difficult decisions” in response to reductions in its overall budget from Whitehall.

However, by the end of April, the then newly appointed Griffiths pledged that the museum would receive specific funding to remain open and had been asked to present a business plan by mid-May identifying strategies for "raising revenue".

Speaking after this week's announcement, Richardson said the additional funding meant the museum could begin critical maintenance work. “The museum is more than 100 years old and was specifically built to house and showcase Wales’ very special national collection,” said Richardson.

“We are delighted that this extra investment will enable us to begin the work to ensure this collection remains accessible to the people of Wales as well as visitors from the rest of the UK and across the world.”

Kate Ede, Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru, which has seven locations across Wales, told the BBC that the money "won't go far enough", with the Cardiff site alone requiring an estimated £25m for urgent repairs, but was still a “ positive step” and would pay for technical experts to help put together a business case.

Addressing the Senedd, Griffiths described a visit to the 100-year-old museum, saying: "I have never seen so many buckets catching water. It was horrific."

'Ambitious for the sector'

In its announcement, the Welsh Government said that addressing the “immediate priority” of protecting and preserving cultural institutions and their collections meant that plans to invest in NCAG and Museum of North Wales "would not be possible at this time".

It claimed that the NCAG's "dispersed model” offers local communities increased access to the national collection and is committed to making more of Wales’ collections available through the Celf ar y Cyd website.

The government also confirmed it will continue to invest in the redevelopment of the National Slate Museum in Llanberis, Theatr Clwyd in Flintshire, and The Football Museum for Wales in Wrexham.

Griffiths said: “We have had to make some difficult decisions and choices, but we have listened, and the priority at this time must be helping to safeguard our cultural institutions, be they large or small, national or local.

“We have been honest about the financial challenges we’re facing, however, this does not stop us being ambitious for the sector. The investment we’re continuing to make and our consultation on draft priorities for culture over the next six years show the importance this Welsh Government places on culture."

Failures in governance

The extra money for museums, including Amgueddfa Cymru, comes just weeks after the Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee revealed it was "extremely concerned about governance arrangements at Amgueddfa Cymru" that failed to resolve a dispute between its former President and Director General – at a £40,500 cost to the Welsh Government.

In total the pay-outs to individuals and the legal costs have cost the public more than £750,000.

The issues were examined as part of the scrutiny of Amgueddfa Cymru’s accounts for 2021/22, published on 26 June. The committee said it was "alarmed" by evidence of failings within the organisation’s internal processes, adding that it "raises questions about the Welsh Government’s involvement in the saga and how it intervenes when such issues arise at publicly funded institutions."

Mark Isherwood, Chair of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee, said the group was "deeply concerned" about the processes employed during the dispute, particularly the interactions between Amgueddfa Cymru and the Welsh Government, adding "it is evident that further measures are necessary to prevent a recurrence of such issues at any public body".

“The processes in place at the time were wholly inadequate, and the matter should have been resolved at the earliest opportunity, avoiding significant unnecessary costs. The fact of this failure is amplified today, considering the grave financial problems facing Amgueddfa Cymru.”

The committee also questioned the Welsh Government's move to appoint the former President, Roger Lewis, to a new role leading a governance review at Cadw while acknowledging that he was not found to have breached the terms of his appointment.

Isherwood said, “The committee questions the rationale of this appointment within the same culture and heritage sector, given the issues at Amgueddfa Cymru. A more robust appointment system is required by Welsh Government, with increased transparency and accountability around appointments like these in the future.”