ALMA UK Museums update from Arts Council
England
March 2013
1. Major policy/political issues
 Arts Council England continues its Organisational Review Process towards a
transition in July 2013. This includes:
o 4 executive directors, reduced from 8
o National discipline leads based around the country with both national
and local responsibilities
o A 21% staffing reduction (559.5 posts down to 442 posts)
 We welcomed our new Chair, Peter Bazalgette, in February 2013
 We continue to have constructive discussions with HLF to align our funding
activities for museums in England
 We know that the reduction to DCMS budgets announced in the autumn
statement will be passed on to the Arts Council as a cut to our Grant in aid.
This will be £3.9 million (one per cent) in 2013/14 and £7.7 million (two per
cent) in 2014/15. We are in the middle of finding the significant 50% savings to
our Grant in aid for the arts through a major restructure, so it is clear is that our
Grant in aid budgets for National portfolio organizations and museum activity
will reduce by one per cent and two per cent.
2. Major sectoral issues/developments
 We are anticipating that the Cultural Gifts Scheme, which will be managed by
Arts Council England through the mechanism of the Acceptance in Lieu Panel,
will be launched within the next few days:
o We are currently completing a recruitment process for the Chair of the
Acceptance in Lieu Panel following the resignation of Tim Knox as he
takes up the Directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
 Having opened the final strand of Renaissance funding for museums with the
launch of the Strategic Funds in October 2012 numerous projects are
progressing. There is approximately £7 million available through the Strategic
support fund and £15 million a year in 2013-14 and 2014-15. We expect to see
awards of approximately £50,000 to £500,000. Details can be found at
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/our-investment/fundingprogrammes/renaissance/strategic-support-fund/
 With our UK colleagues, we are continuing discussions about how
Accreditation operates in a UK context. This was considered at the the
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Accreditation committee meeting in December 2012 and a more detailed
discussion will take place, hosted by MGS in Edinburgh, on 15 March 2013
 Museum Mentors – we are undertaking regional sessions in England in
March 2013 to support, develop and recruit mentors. This is being
facilitated by the contracted Accreditation advisers
 Work is progressing with UK colleagues and other key stakeholders on
an updated collections development policy framework/template to help
guide the development of bespoke policies which are Accreditation
compliant.
Collections Security: we have been working closely with DCMS and ACPO to
look at how better to coordinate discussions around security for collections
\well as approaches to illicit trade.
o The Renaissance funded work with Collections Trust to six museum
security seminars, taking place in Major Partner museum venues, is
coming to completion and the seminars have been particularly well
received. Alongside the seminars, Collections Trust is updating and
developing existing published material on the subject and writing up
examples of good practice. This material will all be available on
Collections Link in the coming months.
The Arts Council delivered its recommendations to DCMS following a ‘light
touch’ review of some specific aspects of GIS in England in cooperation with a
small working group drawn from NMDC and a few non-national museums.
Recommendations were shared with our UK partners and we await the DCMS
response. We intend a Stage 2 review looking at the approach to
contemporary/conceptual art and have discussed participation with UK –wide
colleagues.
Partnership with national museums
We are working on a number of initiatives with national museums which provide
benefits to regional museums:
 We held a joint conference in June at the British Museum on museums
working with artists and, following its success, are planning two follow up
workshops for invited participants to further develop museum practice with a
wide variety of artists
 We partnered with the V&A on an Islamic Art workshop at the end of
November 2012
 We are in discussions with both the Science Museum and the Natural History
Museum regarding science and natural history museums and collections in
England and propose to hold round table meetings for both next year
 We continue to support Subject Specialist Networks, with activity of benefit to
members across the UK.
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Alternative Service Models
 As part of its ACE Strategic Funded work the Association of Independent
Museums is undertaking a programme of work to enhance and support
organisational resilience and effectiveness. This includes research into
appropriate governance models to protect collections in cases such as
Wedgwood.
3. Educational initiatives
 The Museums and Schools programme progresses with £3.6m funding from
the Department for Education until March 2015. The programme is located in
10 places across England and partners regional and national museums, also
working with bridge organisations. You can find out more about the locations
and partnerships on the website http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/ourpriorities-2011-15/children-and-young-people/museums-and-schoolsprogramme/
4 . First World War
 Arts Council England will be working in partnership with the Imperial War
Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure a joined-up cultural
approach to the First World War centenary from 2014.
 Arts Council England has set aside a sum of arts lottery money specifically to
promote, enhance and commission arts activity related to the centenary.
 Arts and cultural organisations can also apply for Grants for the arts funding
for arts activity relating to the First World War. It is hoped that this activity will
include cross-cultural partnerships from across the arts and cultural sectors.
 The Arts Council has allocated £121,171 over the next three years to the
Imperial War Museum through the Renaissance National programmes budget.
This will fund the post of the Centenary Programme Museum Liaison Officer in
the English regions. This Officer position will coordinate activity led by regional
English museums.
 Regional museums will also be able to apply for activities relating to the First
World War through the Renaissance Strategic support fund in 2013/14 and
2014/15.
 As part of the Museums and schools programme, the majority of the ten
regional partnerships of schools, national museums and bridge organisations
will develop activities and learning materials in relation to the First World War.
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