The policy column
The grim fallout of funding cuts
When news broke that the chancellor, George Osborne, had asked government departments to model 40% cuts into their budgets as part of his spending review, you could almost hear the collective groan in the public sector.
We knew further austerity was on the way, we knew it would be bad – but 40% is
a shocking figure. As far as museums are concerned, Arts Council England (ACE), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and national museums have all been told to imagine a world with 40% less funding – and devolved government block grants will fall in step with the decisions made in England.
It doesn’t take a genius to picture the outcome. ACE will be forced to restructure (again) and make judgments about funding for Major Partner Museums and managing Accreditation.
The DCMS would probably be dismantled, with its functions divided among other departments and the loss of a secretary of state to fight the corner for culture in cabinet.
Meanwhile, the nationals will claim that they have been forced to reintroduce charging, thereby overturning the sole Conservative manifesto promise on museums.
And as the DCLG cuts grants to local authorities further, some councils will begin to think about new ways to make museums pay – entry fees and entrepreneurialism.
There is still time to avoid the worst but only if we can show why museums matter to policy makers and, most of all, to the public.
Alistair Brown is the policy officer at the Museums Association
We knew further austerity was on the way, we knew it would be bad – but 40% is
a shocking figure. As far as museums are concerned, Arts Council England (ACE), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and national museums have all been told to imagine a world with 40% less funding – and devolved government block grants will fall in step with the decisions made in England.
It doesn’t take a genius to picture the outcome. ACE will be forced to restructure (again) and make judgments about funding for Major Partner Museums and managing Accreditation.
The DCMS would probably be dismantled, with its functions divided among other departments and the loss of a secretary of state to fight the corner for culture in cabinet.
Meanwhile, the nationals will claim that they have been forced to reintroduce charging, thereby overturning the sole Conservative manifesto promise on museums.
And as the DCLG cuts grants to local authorities further, some councils will begin to think about new ways to make museums pay – entry fees and entrepreneurialism.
There is still time to avoid the worst but only if we can show why museums matter to policy makers and, most of all, to the public.
Alistair Brown is the policy officer at the Museums Association