Museums and galleries facing worst financial situation in 25 years, MSPs told

The financial situation faced by museums and galleries is the worst it has been in at least 25 years, MSPs have been told.

There are particular concerns for Scotland’s industrial museums being at risk of financial collapse due to rising costs and uncertain funding.

Holyrood’s Culture Committee on Thursday heard from a number of organisations which run museums and galleries as part of its pre-budget scrutiny.

Lucy Casot is chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland, the national development body for 432 institutions around the country.

She highlighted a survey of institutions which found 11% of respondents felt their organisation was at risk of closure in the next 12 months.

Ms Casot said: “That’s quite a frightening figure, it’s certainly the worst I have seen in 25 years working in the sector.”

Written evidence supplied to the committee noted there is no way for museums and galleries to apply for core funding to support their running costs, unlike in England where money is available through DCMS.

Museums Galleries Scotland said: “There are serious concerns over the financial stability of several of our industrial museums, sites and collections that tell the story of Scotland’s industrial and social development, where the scale of collections and buildings presents a particular challenge of rising costs.”

National Galleries Scotland – which runs three key galleries in Edinburgh – said staff costs are now taking up 93% of its grant-in-aid funding.

The organisation said: “The remaining 7% of grant-in-aid does not cover the cost of managing and running our estate, including increased utility costs for environmentally controlled buildings needed to care for the national collection. Our utility costs have increased significantly over the past three years. We are now increasingly reliant on earned and contributed income for our core funding.”

It continued: “There is however an opportunity on income generation.

“Our visitor numbers have just recovered to pre-Covid levels with a significant increase due to the recently re-opened Scottish galleries at the National.”