Customer priority for cultural venues
Chief exec gives update on reopening different sites
Culture Perth and Kinross’s chief executive has said getting visitors back to its services is a “priority.”
Helen Smout was providing an update on Perth and Kinross Council’s arms-length organisation to a committee on Wednesday, May 12.
Culture Perth and Kinross currently has two museums Perth Museum and Art Gallery and The Fergusson Gallery - as well as seven libraries and its mobile libraries operating again.
The Perth museums reopened on April 30.
Seven Perth and Kinross libraries began reopening from May 10 along with the three mobile libraries covering the wider region.
Ms Smout told Perth and Kinross Council’s scrutiny committee this was an increase from the six venues open at the point of lockdown in December 2020.
The seven libraries currently open are: AK Bell in Perth; Auchterarder; Blairgowrie; Breadalbane Community Campus, Aberfeldy; Crieff; Loch Leven Community Campus Library, Kinross; Scone; and Strathearn Community Campus Library in Crieff.
Plans are afoot to open more libraries in the summer holidays.
Ms Smout said: “We’ve got pretty much near normal opening hours for the venues that we have open and we will be reopening North Inch Library at the start of July once we get to the end of the school term.
“And our other campus libraries will return to near normal opening hours once the end of the school term comes along.”
Councillors were told a full museum exhibition programme is planned for the rest of this year.
But reopening has involved extra COVID measures across all three of the council’s arms-length organisations - Horsecross, Live Active Leisure and Culture Perth and Kinross.
Ms Smout told councillors: “Our operating costs have increased substantially. It’s not just the cost of PPE, additional cleaning and everything that you would see across the council’s own business as well as others, it’s the restraints on our operating models that the current guidance puts.
“For example, in our libraries we have a 72-hour quarantine process for books which considerably impacts on the quality of experience for customers but also for the processing and the staff time for processing, which impacts on what we are able to deliver.
She said of Culture Perth and Kinross: “Financial pressures are somewhat masked this year by the phased reopening and our own use of furlough.
“So 2022 and 2023 will be when we see the most significant impact of the pandemic.”
She said they had benefited from some financial support from the council and COVID relief funds along with furlough.
Culture Perth and Kinross has launched two new websites: CPK Play, which offers a range of learning materials for schools and at home, and a companion piece for the museum exhibitions.
The museum website allows them to put additional content on for those who cannot visit the venue in person allowing them to extend their reach beyond Perth and Kinross and indeed beyond the UK.
Ms Smout told the scrutiny committee: “Our recent Soutar Festival - which was held at the end of April and entirely online drew in audiences from the USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden and other countries around the world.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to take what we have here in Perth and Kinross here out to the wider world.”
2022 and 2023 will be when we see the most significant impact of the pandemic