Is a revival of Renaissance in the Regions the solution for cash-strapped museums?

In the 40 years or so I have been working around museums, I haven’t met anyone who thought they weren’t a worthwhile thing to have in society and good value for money. Museum people keep demonstrating this to be true in their dedication to making the world a better place. 

Equally, I have never come across local authority funding for museums that was large enough to make any real difference to local authority financial management.

Cutting all funding to museums – locally  or nationally – would not move the dial. More than that, there is now a body of evidence that shows funding of museums is an investment, in that you get a meaningful financial and social return. 

Yet here we are again. Recent research commissioned by Arts Council England (ACE) shows that in the past 15 or so years, local authority funding to museums has fallen by about 23%, which is 42% when you take into account inflation. While local authorities have suffered funding cuts in this period, museums have done worse than councils overall and other services.

It’s certainly not going to get easier any time soon. Almost every local authority is facing a funding precipice. Cutting museum budgets won’t help the situation – but that has never stopped anyone in the past.

The odd thing is that local authority-reliant museums have not radically reduced their public services over that period. 

On the contrary, I would argue that in the period under consideration, museums have got vastly better at engaging with – and being of real relevance to – their communities and locations, whether that is through great exhibitions and galleries, exciting new developments or innovative community and schools programmes. 

So, are we miracle workers? Well, actually, probably, yes. Under huge pressure, we have found more and more ways to magic money from new sources and to do things increasingly innovatively. But this can’t go on. I feel the limit has been reached – and it has all been achieved at a great cost. 

There has been the impact on staff wellbeing, as well as the core infrastructure that underpins everything we do. Our buildings are falling apart, while our collections are not being cared for and researched as they need to be. 

We are all acting like creative businesses, but our margins are wafer thin and we have had no opportunity to build reserves or make investments. We live hand-to-mouth, which does not help long-term strategic planning. We might be resilient, but we are not sustainable. 

The solution?  The ACE report identifies 10 potential actions. They are all well-meaning but, as ever, there are too many of them and most are already happening in one way or another. Or they require yet another study or need a capacity in the sector that is simply not there any more. 

We all know what is needed – a bit more long-term, predictable money. And not that much. The report suggests a reduction in local authority funding from 2010 to 2023 has been about £45m a year.

The arts council is currently putting about £65m a year into regional museums, while the Department for Culture, Media & Sport is putting £489m into national museums annually.  

The Museum Estate and Development Fund for buildings is also a step in the right direction. But we need additional long-term central government investment if we want everyone to continue to have access to high-quality museums.

Let’s make it contingent on long-term local authority committed match-funding and direct it at core long-term investment in buildings, estates, collections and permanent well-paid core museum jobs. All the other stuff will follow. 

It’s not impossible – it’s been done  before. In 2001, the last time there was an existential threat to regional museums, central government funded the Renaissance in the Regions programme.

I fear the current threat is even greater than it was then. Let’s have a second Renaissance.

Hedley Swain is chief executive of Brighton & Hove Museums