Scottish cultural heritage is sitting on a cliff edge

With the arts adding £7 billion to the nation’s economy each year, it’s plain to see why Nicola Sturgeon’s administration has eagerly sanctioned funding for sizeable infrastructure projects such as the construction of V&A Dundee and a major overhaul of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

The financial value of tourism in Scotland reached £10.5bn in 2018. This welcome influx of cash came from 15.5 million visitors – both domestic and international – and kept 218,000 people employed. Figures for the first three quarters of 2019 suggest even further increases were experienced last year.

This year will not perpetuate this growth. Instead, it will be remembered as a time of tourism famine after several years of ever-mounting feast. Lockdown has ravaged visitor attractions from Kirkcudbright to Caithness, leaving the very real possibility that swathes of the nation’s heritage could be irrevocably lost.

If any confirmation was required of just how unprecedented the past few months have been, the message from VisitScotland, the agency in place to maximise Scottish tourism, is that “despite the love and desire to share our friendly, passionate and unique country, we must ask everyone at this time not to travel to or around Scotland”.

For independent museums – those which receive no recurring financial backing from the Government or major arts bodies – the outlook is especially bleak. The majority live hand-to-mouth and rely almost entirely on admission fees to keep the lights on. Having gone months without the lifeblood of their operations, temporary closure could soon become permanent for many sites.

With museums falling into Phase Three of the Government’s “route map” for re-opening the country, the very real fear is that some independent museums – which rely heavily on volunteers, many of whom are elderly – may simply not be able to reopen their doors, either logistically or economically.

The staggering loss of income through the Easter holidays and early summer season has already “left many in a perilous position,” according to Andrew Lovett, chair of the Association of Independent Museums. Sites throughout the country are “struggling to see a route out of this crisis, even once the lockdown is lifted,” he adds.

With many independent venues discovering “funding isn’t accessible, adequate or appropriate” or that any support they are eligible for is only “designed for the short-term”, David Mann, chair of Industrial Museums Scotland, claims many of the country’s smaller cultural hubs are now “on a cliff’s edge”.

He doesn’t see this improving any time soon either, referencing growing concern that further support “will come too late, after some members have closed permanently, staff have been made redundant and charities wound up”.

This, Mann concludes, will be irreversible, “putting nationally significant collections at risk and, most importantly, decimating staff, destroying team dynamics and ending careers”.

Geography can also have a significant bearing on the finances of smaller museums. Independents in the Highlands, for instance, have become accustomed to outperforming the “meagre means” on which they must survive, says Dan Cottam, chair of Museums Heritage Highland. “Rural community museums perpetually walk a tightrope in terms of cashflow and the inability to generate income. This means most will quickly be depleting what small reserves we have. It is vital now more than ever that our collections and our valuable work is recognised and supported to ensure survival.”

One organisation that has been able to provide immediate cash boosts for struggling establishments is Museums Galleries Scotland. Having published a report that found more than half of the nation’s independent museums will run out of funds within six months and 71% don’t believe they can survive a year, the organisation launched two emergency funds.

More than 30 museums have now received a timely cash injection through either its Urgent Response Fund – which distributed £700,000 from the Scottish Government – or a Digital Resilience Fund.

In the midst of what she describes as a “worrying and stressful time”, Lucy Casot, CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland, says it is important to remember that Scottish museums and galleries “play an important economic, educational and social role that will be valuable as our country plans for the future”.

As many independently run institutions seek vital new support, another strand of the Scottish museums sector is desperately seeking assurances that well-established funding streams will remain flowing. University museums, despite usually being far more financially secure than their independent counterparts, are nervously awaiting to see how badly the current crisis hits Scotland’s higher education sector.

A dearth of lucrative overseas students arriving in September could well see the nation’s universities forced to slash spending. Little wonder, given that Universities Scotland forecasts countrywide losses of £78 million this year due to the pandemic. Its conservative estimates then predict a staggering £500 million financial shortfall for 2020/21.

“We are already facing recruitment freezes, budget cuts and closure of physical access, which will lead to more severe concerns longer term,” notes Sarah Burry-Hayes, co-ordinator for University Museums in Scotland.

“The ramifications of Covid-19 on university museums and their activities may well only start to become truly clear from 2021/22 onwards but should not be underestimated.”

A task of primary importance for university museums, Burry-Hayes concludes, is to “underline our relevance and value during lockdown and in the ‘new normal’ post Covid-19 lockdown world”.

While the picture is both grim and highly opaque at present, there are some Scottish cultural institutions that do feel secure enough to begin planning for the future. Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, for example, has begun amassing items from the public for a Covid-19 collection. Anna MacQuarrie, the organisation’s curator of history, says this will help to “preserve experiences of this challenging time for future generations to understand how everyday life in the city changed so much and so suddenly”.

While such plans are undoubtedly a reason for tempered optimism, a successful summer for Scottish museums will undoubtedly be one where none are forced to close their doors for good.