Vox Pop | What advocacy are you doing during this election year?

“In the run up to the general election the MA will be meeting with all major political parties to make the case for the value of museums. We are encouraging all museum workers to join us in raising awareness of the value and impact of their museums in their local area. Advocacy doesn’t stop after the general election, we need to keep making the case and we will continue to raise the profile of museums and keep reiterating the asks in our Museum Manifesto.”

“It is a crucial time for our civic museums – the huge financial challenge facing local government has left our sector facing an existential crisis. The English Civic Museums Network has asked Culture Commons to help our 80-plus member services to better articulate the vital work we do in communities and enable us to situate the work into national level policy dialogues. We expect this to position civic museums as organisations that can enable a new government to deliver on its own policy priorities.”

“The trust has a history of addressing problems, from Victorian city dwellers’ need for green space, to the dissolution of country house collections, to the over-development of Britain’s coastline. Ahead of the election, we are talking to all parties about our policy platform, a Path to Better Things, whichhas policies on tackling unequal access to heritage and nature, protection of local authorities’ cultural heritage and recognising climate change’s impact on heritage and landscape.”