COVID-19: Some of the UK’s best-known museums ‘facing mothballing or permanent closure’, charity warns
Written by News on 22/01/2021
Museums and galleries are “fighting for survival” during the latest lockdown, a charity has warned.
Six in 10 museums, galleries and historic houses were worried about their survival, according to the latest research by Art Fund, a national charity that helps them buy works of art.
Art Fund director Jenny Waldman said: “The latest lockdown is a body blow and is leaving our museums and galleries fighting for survival.
“Smaller museums in particular, which are so vital to their communities, simply do not have the reserves to see them through this winter.
“Tragically, we are now seeing well-known and much-loved museums facing mothballing or permanent closure.”
Among those well-known names are the Victoria and Albert, which announced in September that it was planning to make 103 staff redundant – approximately 10% of its overall workforce.
Science Museum Group (SMG) entered a multi-stage redundancy consultation late last year with 65 to 95 redundancies expected in the first phase alone.
Birmingham Museums Trust has cut the equivalent of 48 full-time roles, representing 25% of its total workforce.
Others could follow in the footsteps of London’s Florence Nightingale Museum, which announced earlier this month it was closing for the “foreseeable future”.
Florence Nightingale Museum’s director David Green said: “The pandemic has left us on our knees.
“The sad irony is that Florence Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing and her teachings are being used to this day to help save lives in the pandemic… the very thing that is closing the doors of the museum.”
Art Fund said it has only been able to help 15% of applicants to its emergency response fund and warns The Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead is also under threat of closure.
Olympic artist Sir Anish Kapoor said: “Museums are where we go to engage with art, witness our psychic history and understand ourselves. Today they face great difficulty.”
Art Fund has also announced £750,000 of new grants to help 23 museums respond to the pandemic – taking its total to £2.25m – but it has received applications totalling £16m.
Museums and galleries are far from the only area of society to suffer during the pandemic.
Nearly 6,000 bars, pubs, sports clubs and other licensed premises closed last year as the hospitality sector was hit, nearly three times the 2019 total, research by business advisory firm AlixPartners showed.
(c) Sky News 2021: COVID-19: Some of the UK’s best-known museums ‘facing mothballing or permanent closure’, charity warns
