Museum curators fear for heritage as cutbacks bite

MUSEUM directors responsible for some of Yorkshire’s most popular attractions have been warned that staff cutbacks are placing Britain’s heritage under threat.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th May 2011, 11:19 BST

The York Museums Trust is having to enforce up to six compulsory redundancies by cutting the number of curators at the city’s Castle Museum after losing out on £500,000 in annual funding.

The Social History Curators Group (SHCG), which represents 400 professionals nationally, has voiced concerns that the cuts, which are being replicated across the UK, are undermining the nation’s museums.

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Senior officials from the SHCG claimed the cuts represented a false economy, and would put at risk two important museum quality standards, Accreditation and Designation, which are prerequisites for many funding bodies.

They added that the York Museums Trust would not be eligible for potentially lucrative funding in the future, making any salary savings irrelevant, if it were to lose the quality standards.

The chairwoman of the SHCG, Victoria Rogers, said: “In difficult economic times and through rapid social change, it is all the more important for us to collect, preserve and study the history of ordinary people.

“It is well documented that museums make significant impacts on social inclusion, community cohesion and people’s quality of life, and these are especially important in a period of economic downturn.

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“The people of York deserve a museum which does not just show art and archaeology, but also the lives of people like them in the past.”

A spokesman from the York Museums Trust admitted that it has faced tough financial decisions after the Museums Libraries and Archives Council, which provided grants of more than £500,000 per year, was abolished.

The trust, which also runs York Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum, is also anticipating reduced funding from York Council when an agreement is renewed in 2013.

Six posts from across the trust have not been filled since January last year to counter the funding cuts.

Six more workers took voluntary redundancy and early retirement when it was offered in January. The spokesman confirmed a further six posts could be lost due to compulsory redundancies.

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