Museums, Libraries and Archives Chief Exec responds to recent Museums Association survey

The passionate debate around the future of the arts, culture and heritage sector continues this week. Roy Clare, Chief Executive of Museums, Libraries and Archives has released a statement in response to the recent Museums Association survey around the Renaissance Hubs which suggested that museums could be ‘mothballed’ and audiences reduced by twenty per cent.

"I understand the tactical attraction of making dire public warnings about the consequences of severe spending cuts, but that doesn't detract from the need to deal with the realities. Maybe it's an inevitable consequence of a box ticking questionnaire, but it read to me as if the respondents had been stuck in a box immune to all the public debate that has happened since the credit crunch. I do not believe the best way to make the case for Renaissance (certainly in talks with ministers and local government leaders) is to threaten that a withdrawal of funding will lead to regional museums putting the clock back a decade, mothballing objects and retrenching into a world where museums keep things first, and serve the public last.

"We all know significant cuts are unfortunately inevitable, not least with the financial pressures town halls are under. As MLA set out in its publication 'Sharper Investment' published in the Spring, the sector has to work out how to re-model services within reducing resources around the needs of the public. We will win the survival of Renaissance and a fairer slice of the cake by demonstrating we are determined to make the cash go further, to innovate, to be entrepreneurial and make the end product more accessible and attractive, not less so. I am optimistic that that we are winning the argument for sustained Renaissance funding, because we can point to museum services that have used the cash to become more outgoing - forming partnerships, spreading new ideas, and exciting the public - and we can therefore legitimately promise to do more with less."