Museums Revenue Drop Bigger Than Reported

July 17 2020

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

Martin Bailey for the Art Newspaper reported yesterday that the Creative Industries Federation have admitted to underestimating the drop in revenue faced by museums in the UK. They had initially reported that museums faced a 9% drop in revenue (down c.£743m) for 2020. However, their recently revised figures show a drop of around 45% (down c.£3,887m). This is compared with figures from 2019 where the total revenue of museums, galleries and libraries was £8,559m. The job losses in the sector was also revised from 4,000 to 7,000.

This all makes for very grim reading. One hopes that the large London museums will be able to weather the storm. The situation for the regional museums looks more precarious. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's public appeal has raised just shy of £20,000 thus far, which is encouraging.

•