Richard Morrison speaks to sector leaders about the cost of keeping our national museums free in an arts funding crisis, especially when over half of regional museums now charge admission.
It’s been a sacred mantra chanted by successive governments since 2001. As with the NHS, but with rather shorter queues, Britain’s national museums and galleries don’t charge for admission. Much else may be going pear-shaped in British culture, but the philosophy that our main public collections of art and antiquities should be freely available to everyone has been staunchly upheld, albeit at a cost to taxpayers of nearly half a billion pounds a year.
But is this remarkable free-for-all — matched in scope only by the state museums of China — coming to a bitter end? “We are all struggling financially,” says Maria Balshaw, the director of the Tate galleries. “What we get from the government is 50 per cent lower in relation to our costs than it was in 2010.”
“Investment in museums is contracting in a very worrying way,” agrees Jenny Waldman, the director of the Art Fund, which supports museums across the UK. “And when there’s less money, people start looking for new ways to generate income. Inevitably, admission charges start being talked about.”...Keep reading on The Times.
It’s been a sacred mantra chanted by successive governments since 2001. As with the NHS, but with rather shorter queues, Britain’s national museums and galleries don’t charge for admission. Much else may be going pear-shaped in British culture, but the philosophy that our main public collections of art and antiquities should be freely available to everyone has been staunchly upheld, albeit at a cost to taxpayers of nearly half a billion pounds a year.
But is this remarkable free-for-all — matched in scope only by the state museums of China — coming to a bitter end? “We are all struggling financially,” says Maria Balshaw, the director of the Tate galleries. “What we get from the government is 50 per cent lower in relation to our costs than it was in 2010.”
“Investment in museums is contracting in a very worrying way,” agrees Jenny Waldman, the director of the Art Fund, which supports museums across the UK. “And when there’s less money, people start looking for new ways to generate income. Inevitably, admission charges start being talked about.”...Keep reading on The Times.