I realise I have been totally rubbish at keeping a blog, which I am going to pretend is because my life has been so full of other competing needs, and now move on - thanks for not questioning that!
Anyway, Live and let die, obviously this isn't going to be a post about James Bond, but what it is going to touch on is acceptable market failure within the museum sector.
We currently live in a time where museums are closing on a regular, and occasionally feeling like daily, basis. With each closure the cultural fabric of a community, area or form of collection gets eroded and potentially lost. It could be argued that we 'lived it up' far too much in the good times, and didn't prepare for the bad times properly. Or it could be argued that culture and museums are the easy pickings for cuts during times of belt tightening. And there are probably 101 other arguments as to why culture appears to be taking a big hit during this time of austerity.
Recently there has also been alot more talk about museums becoming more 'business like'. The Museums Association website even had a poll on it, albeit people were more against the principle than for. However, if we are to assume that museums, like much of the 'real world' are a business, then we do have to prepare ourselves for the fact that not all the individual businesses will survive. For those involved, this is devastating, for those that survive, it shows a certain level of business acumen, or at least public and/or community support for the 'brand' or offer.
A couple of years ago, the service I support went through a process of arguing that at least one of the museums operated by the council should close - one in particular had decreasing visitor figures, increasing costs, low local support and sizable cash savings for the council. The public backlash was brutal, but effective - it didn't happen. The service has now taken a much more business minded approach to the management of all its museum buildings and service in general, and actually invested in the whole service to reap greater future returns. In short, we listened - something we hadn't done for a long time - and we reacted - something we didn't consider was a possibility. Now, our service is in no way safe (what LA run service is?) but we are in a better place then we were 18 months ago, with new leadership, direction and community involvement, plus some money to improve the service to make people use it more.
OK, so lots of museums that close have public support and lobbying, but still end up boarded up and rented out as the next newest Starbucks or fashionable wine bar, we might just have been lucky. But, we are not the only sector going through this sort of change.
Recently Habitat went under - closing all but the three most profitable stores, Pfizers, here in east Kent gave two years notice on its plans to withdraw, Jane Norman went into administration . We are not alone. We are not special. We are part of the increasing norm.
In the named examples above, things can survive - Habitat has consolidated, so the 'brand' is not lost and in the future I suppose could rise from the smouldering ashes. Pfizers gave enough notice for the employees themselves to try and create a workable solution, and for the community and government to react and amend. Jane Norman is likely to be taken over by a larger parent company, or survive as a concessions only chain (similar to what Warehouse did about 2 years ago). The point is, these businesses took the punches, nursed the bruises and have looked for a way out. OK, not all businesses survive at all - but alot will. Museums are the same. Some will just disappear, many will be supported by the employees and communities they are in, others will merge or find new ways of existing, and some will reduce to a point that is commercially viable and operationally sound.
I sit looking at budget books on a daily basis, and they scare the hell out of me, especially when i imagine them with 20% less attached to them, however, it also means that I am looking for the alternative, the different, the innovative or the sometimes out and out bizarre, but rest assured, I am doing it to ensure that in 5, 10, 15, or even 100 years time, the collections, the research, the community life, that the museums currently support will still exist. It may not be the same as it was 5 years ago, but the essence will still be there.
I really do feel for any museum that feels it has no alternative left but to close completely, and I know there will be many, and it will - to a certain extent - be up to the sector to keep their candles burning and memories alive - but we cannot be blinkered to the fact that we are a business, we are open to market forces and changing financial whims and purse strings, and that sometimes we have to accept that for the sector to live, a few of the businesses might die.
