Today Britain will brave fierce drizzle to excercise its right to freedom (and decide Heritage Key’s Fantasy Election 2010). But while Churchill’s lionised canon taught us to fight on the beaches, the hills, fields and towns, there’s one place he plainly forgot to mention: museums. Right now anyone wishing to see ancient marvels like the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles and Assyrian Lion Hunt can do so free of charge, a nonpareil since 2001.
Those in favour of free entry claim that it opens antiquity up for everyone, that visitors to Britain’s museums have increased by over 20 million, and that it makes London a more attractive tourist destination. Opponents point to financial deficits and the fact that people from lower social classes still aren’t visiting museums as much as had been hoped. Museums that have dropped their entry fees get more government funding, which independent institutions argues has created a cultural oligarchy, while the bigger names claim standards have shot up as more funding and revenue from exhibitions has come in.
So with the election in its final throes and full-time about to be blown, what plans do Britain’s three major parties, its telly triumvirate, have in store for its museums? We examine what the three main parties would do for museums. In alphabetical order…
Conservatives
David Cameron will be hoping his charges call pull off a Promethean swing in power tonight, avoid a hung parliament and claim the first Tory government for over 13 years. But while his frontline has been the economy, public services and foreign affairs, the Conservative manifesto makes neither mention of free entry to museums, nor the BBC licence fee.
This January Shadow Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt pledged to keep free entry, giving a “paean of praise” to the scheme, adding that it would be “here to stay under a Conservative government.” Hunt also lambasted Labour’s use of lottery money, simultaneously echoing his rivals’ own policies on freeing it up for the arts.
Tories have long swooned over the US’ philanthropic philosophy on museums, pushing for less public spending and leaner controlling bodies. This could change the face of Britain’s museums, as philanthropists would want seats on museum boards, much like their US counterparts.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson, himself a Tory, wants to encourage visitors to place their own value on entry
à la New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where visitors are asked to pay a ‘voluntary’ admission fee of $20.
Labour
Monday saw Labour leader Gordon Brown, buoyed by an apparent resurgence in fortunes, make an eleventh-hour plea in Manchester for voters to keep him in office, listing the achievements he believes his party have made over the past 13 years. These included everything from a reduction in domestic violence to NHS waiting times. And free entry to museums, something Labour doesn’t intent to change, though it does want to see them become more independent.
Addressing museums’ economic pitfalls, the party’s Creative Britain manifesto aims to secure, “operational independence for major museums and galleries, with more lottery funding returning to the arts, sport and culture after 2012.”
The main thing to take from Labour’s stance on museums and the arts in general is how prominently they feature in its manifesto. This may be a promising thing for Britain’s museums, but in the current economic climate cuts will have to be made. Time, and tonight’s result, will determine whether it’s simply a smokescreen.
Liberal Democrats
Nick Clegg may have wooed the public from his neon parapit a fortnight ago, but his party’s manifesto barely differs from its competitors when it comes to culture and museums. Free admission will be kept, and Britain’s mash-up of private and public spending will continue under a Lib Dem goverment.
Yet Clegg’s cavalry have offered three cultural gambits: the first is that national institutions should be national, ie not entirely focused on London. In the long-run this policy could have a profound effect on the way the British Museum, for example, is able to keep hold of artefacts from across the country such as the Lewis Chessmen or the Staffordshire Hoard.
Secondly, the Liberals plan to charge tax on the National Lottery, which they claim could raise up to £270m for “good causes”. Like so much Lib Dem policy the idea of a ‘good cause’ is as vague as a rock in a sandstorm, but museums may be praying for a hung parliament to see what happens. Clegg’s final ruse is to simplify Gift Aid so that philanthropists can more easily fund institutions like national museums. It’s a bold move to make – effectively giving tax breaks to rich people – and not something the public are likely to endorse in the current climate, but in the event of a hung parliament it will be extremely difficult to implement.
What’s going to happen?
Whatever happens tonight, nothing will change overnight. And if Britain is left with a hung parliament, an ever-increasingly likely outcome, chances are little or no radical changes will be forced through. All three major parties adhere to some kind of free entry, so we won’t be paying to see the country’s many stunning ancient artefacts (the greatest of which you can see in our special video). But leaner governing bodies and an increase in philanthropic spending can surely mean only one thing: funding cuts. It’s inevitable in the current climate – every area of society is having to make difficult choices – so let’s hope our museums can rise to the challenge, get down to some good old-fashioned fundraising and keep Britain’s heritage safe for future generations.
