Industrial Museums Scotland fears for the future after Covid
INDUSTRIAL Museums Scotland (IMS) – whose membership includes the Scottish Museum of Railways, run by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo'ness; Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, home to Scotland's only working heritage tramway; the Scottish Maritime Museum, which holds significant items of railway steamer history, and Maid of the Loch, the last railway-built paddle steamer in the UK – said it fears for the future of many of its collections.
IMS gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee stating that visitor figures plummeted to 37% from the previous year across the Covid lockdown and limited reopening periods, and museums are looking at a similar drop for 2021/22, which, they say, is unsustainable.
Revenue was down 50%, and the association is forecasting that a loss of £300,000 for 2020/21 will double in 2021/22, raising questions about reopening at all. Many of the museums have carried out redundancy consultations with staff.
IMS told the committee: “Our worry is that further essential funding for the industrial museum sector will be too little, too late, and that we will be forced to make staff redundant, mothball historic buildings and collections, and cease public engagement.
“The impact of this on the sector will be irreversible, putting valuable collections at risk. Collections will have to be put into the care of national institutions or councils, in which resources are already insufficient.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We are in regular contact with Museum Galleries Scotland and have already provided £4 million for the Museums Recovery and Resilience Fund in July 2020, which was topped up with a further £3.1 million in December 2020.”
Museum Galleries Scotland chief executive Lucy Casot said: “We are grateful to the Scottish Government for considerable support for museums, however, considerable challenges remain.
“The financial impact of two lost tourist seasons cannot be underestimated, but we hope that domestic audiences will be desperate to visit museums when they reopen.”
IMS co-ordinator Emma HalfordForbes added: “Industrial museums are at risk and the unique contribution they make to Scottish culture, education and tourism could be lost forever. We await a response to the specific points we raised in our submission to the committee.”