Bringing an abundance of benefits
01/12/2009
Museums Galleries Scotland has already established that museums are an important contributor to the Scottish economy. Now, says chief executive Joanne Orr, as funding pressures increase, it’s time for the sector to work together to ensure their future.
With an estimated 25m visits each year and worth around £800m to the Scottish economy, the tourism and economic impact of the museums sector is well documented. Now Museums Galleries Scotland’s research focuses on determining the wider social benefits that the sector brings as we strongly believe that spending on culture presents cost effective solutions to other portfolios such as health, education and criminal justice.
We already know that museums and galleries enrich peoples’ lives and provide a cultural focus for their local communities. Thisfocus results in towns which are more attractive places to live, makes residents more inclined to stay and attracts new residents, helping communities to thrive. A quote from one project manager behind the new Lismore Heritage Centre illustrates this cohesive community role: “before the museum, there was the village hall, a shop, five telephone boxes and a public library in a cupboard in the old school house. Now we’ve got a whole community centre for the island with other businesses set up in association with it.”
Voluntary participation in culture is high with over half the workforce being volunteers –underlining the huge community participation in culture. Cultural participation by volunteers brings positive outcomes for their health and well being. Our research uncovered that the main benefit gained by volunteers is the sense that they are achieving something useful, a feeling which is of particular importance for older volunteers. This sense of inclusion within communities should not be undermined in the present day.
The way forward for museums is to continue to rise to the challenge of keeping pace with digital advances. Increasing online accessibility is essential to allow engagement with future audiences. We aim to lead by example and our Their Past Your Future Scotland website is a good example of how to use user-generated content to engage the public with real histories. The project sees cross-generational working in Scottish communities capturing oral histories of the Second World War and subsequent conflicts. At a recent conference, teachers previewing the site were excited about the possibilities that the website presented. They could see that it would allow them to bring history lessons to life in the classroom in an incredibly meaningful and accessible way.
We are in the midst of a decisive time for the sector and we have been surveying our members to determine to what extent they are being affected both financially and structurally. We know that public sector funding is under scrutiny and our members are facing cuts to their budgets. Contrast this against indications that footfall to museums and galleries in Scotland is up in some places by around 8.5 per cent. We are seeing a growing demand for service provision potentially being undermined by a lack of investment. These cuts are not just affecting local authority services, but also independent museums.
To weather the challenges that lie ahead we and the sector need to continue to find ways ofcommunicating effectively the essential role of museums and galleries. Our research is a knowledge base our 350 museum and gallery members can draw on to assist them in making the case for continued investment in our public services. Research such as our ‘Cornerstones of Communities’ which uses five case studies to show the impact of our sector across the five areas of economic, social, physical, human and cultural impacts is helping us make the case.
Our museums and galleries lie at the heart of our communities and the sector needs to work together to ensure that they remain so for future generations.
As reported in:
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Public Servant Scotland (1/12/09)