Struggling museum axes hires
Stirling Smith’s Art Gallery and Museum is to close the building for evening hires, partly blaming a £4000 reduction in its funding from Stirling Council.
And they say that, while an option to close the museum to the public for an extra day a week was shelved, that may have to be reconsidered going forward.
The £4000 decrease, approved in Thursday’s council budget, saw the annual core grant reduced to £258,000 a year.
However, the museum trustees suggested it was the latest in a series of challenges.
In a statement, they said they appreciated the“difficult choices” the council had to make but added:“this reduction comes at the end of a period where our real terms budget has dropped 64 per cent since 2010. Our core grant has been static, for a considerable number of years which has in reality meant an incremental cut to our operating budget of £168,000.
“Dedication and frugality have effectively masked this position for some time but this has been at the expense of the museum itself.
“The electrical system is not fit for purpose and the heating system is not functional in parts of the building which put the collections at risk.
“Our small team produce high quality work with minimal resource but we are now struggling to deliver core activity due to increased operating costs.
“These two issues combined mean that as charity trustees we also have to make difficult but responsible choices.”
The building will close for hires in the evening from June 1 onwards, with the trustees saying the combined costs of opening the building and staffing mean it is not economically viable and places and an“additional burden on our small team to manage”.
A research fee is also being introduced for organisations and those living outside of Stirling Council area where it requires staff time to deliver.
They added:“we have made the choice not to close to the public for an additional day per week for the time being but intend to keep that situation under review.
“The trustees will continue to look at income diversification as a priority and seek funding for what are now emergency fabric repairs.
“As trustees our primary duty is to the safe stewardship of the collection and to our staff. The Smith is a nationally and internationally significant repository of collections and the collective memory of Stirling and surrounding areas.
The added:“we passionately believe that a city such as Stirling deserves a facility that shares our collective stories to the world and also brings the world to Stirling and hope that these new measures can in the future be reconsidered.”