Cultural Genocide?

The Scottish Executive called for an audit of Scotland's independent museums in their cultural strategy review last summer. This, however, may take years to complete, by which time many museums will have closed their doors for the last time. Their contents will either be dumped, or sold to foreign collectors, and much of Scotland's precious heritage will have been lost. Why is this happening?

The director of the Scottish Museums Council called in August for a new national funding system as it emerged two major establishments were on the brink of serious financial problems. Jane Ryder's claim that a national policy would provide stability for Scotland's hard-pressed museums came as the Scottish Maritime and the Scottish Mining museums admitted they could face closure unless a financial package can be found to cover running costs. The SMC chief said falling visitor numbers, increased competition and cuts in funding from local authorities had created major financial difficulties for many independent establishments. "I can see a crisis looming in Scottish museums. For many of them things are very finely balanced. Most of the independent museums rely on local authority funding, which have cut their budgets by 30% in real terms since local government reorganisation. No sector can sustain that kind of downturn in income without being under severe strain. I would like to see the Scottish Executive develop a national policy for museums which could give a stable financial basis to a network of museums."

Since then, both the National Mining Museum in Wanlockhead and now the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine have admitted that they will close very shortly, with the prospect of job losses nearing 100 people, if funding cannot be urgently found. Artefacts suc as the only surviving 'O' class submarine engine were this week being taken into storage from the Maritime Museum, as Scottish Opera moved into the museum to mount a 3-day show called 'Turn of the Tide'. This debacle will cost in excess of £100,00, but will pay only £4,000 into the coffers of the museum, which closed its doors to the public last month due to a £43,000 deficit, and appears unlikely to reopen.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive previously said that the general question of funding for Scotland's museums would be addressed during the development of a national cultural strategy, due to be launched later this year. She added: "Ministers are responsible by statute for funding the National Museums and Galleries of Scotland. Non-national museums and galleries are the responsibility of those who run them, most of them local authorities and independent trusts."

So that's all right then, eh? Doesn't matter if they go to the wall and we lose even more of our industrial or working-class heritage - it's not the Executive's fault. Timothy Clifford can afford to blow £8 million on paintings for the National Galleries, but there's none in the kitty to subsidise our industrial past. So what will we end up with then - dozens of paintings of all the industrialist who got rich through the labour of Scotland's poor - but no trace of the site of their labour. The vision of the Scottish Executive is that of rich art galleries and opera; a very Blairite scenario. But what of the vast majority of Scots who wish at least some trace of their industrial heritage to be preserved? Sod them, it appears the Executive are saying. They would do well to remember Marie Antoinette - their "let them eat cake" attitude is not dissimilar. Perhaps it is time to give them a dose of reality. Dewar and Canavan's constituencies are up for grabs. Let the people speak.



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