Bristol could hand over control of city's museums
Bristol City Council could hand over the running of its museums, including the forthcoming £26-million M-Shed, to another organisation.
The council's museums and archives select committee says that over the next two years "serious consideration" should be given to a number of management options for the city's six museums to save money and speed up decisions.
The options are: a trust, a partnership with neighbouring local authorities, a public/private partnership, community ownership or privatisation.
Paul Barnett, who is in charge of the council's museums service, stresses he does not believe privatisation will happen, and that the word can send "shivers down the spine".
The committee report states: "The existing buildings, collections, staff and commercial activities could all be within the scope of any possible plan to externalise the service".
Details are thin on the ground, with the committee stating "it is likely to take at least two years to achieve a thorough appraisal and
prepare the necessary legal and financial grounding" for any changes to take place.
This would coincide with the planned opening in 2011 of the Museum of Bristol project, now renamed M-Shed.
Chaired by Conservative group leader Richard Eddy, the committee looked at a range of management options, and went on fact-finding visits to Glasgow and Tyne & Wear.
Mr Barnett said he favoured the trust model, adding that where other local authorities had handed over control of museums, the buildings and collections remained in council ownership.
The select committee has made 28 recommendations on the future of the service, which covers the M-Shed, City Museum and Art Gallery, Blaise Castle, Red Lodge, Georgian House and the Bristol Record Office, stressing the need for a wider variety of funding.
A quarter of the service's £5.3m income has come from the government's Renaissance In The Regions programme, but this is due to end in 2011.
In addition, the service is aiming to reduce the fixed costs of £4.6 million it spends on 119 employees and premises by 18 per cent by the same date.
But Mr Barnett denied this would necessarily lead to redundancies, even though a review of staffing in the museums service is being carried out.
He told the Evening Post: "We need to be smarter commercially and increase our effectiveness in generating income.
"I don't think there are areas of the museums service that could be privatised, and I can't think of any museums that have been.
"It doesn't mean we couldn't be more efficient.
"I would guess the trust model is going to be the one we would end up with here.
The report is due to be considered by the full council next month.
● IT'S not just the Museum of Bristol that could be renamed as part of a re-branding of the service.
Bristol City Council is considering renaming other museums and has hired Manchester-based company True North to re-brand the museum service as a whole, at a cost of £73,000.
Mr Barnett said the City Museum and Art Gallery was likely to be renamed the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
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by Roy, Clifton
Saturday, October 31 2009, 8:25AM
“So the thought that he might become accountable for what he does sends '..shivers down the spine ...' for Mr Barnett.
At whose expense does he feel his comfortably secure and luxuriously pensioned life should continue for ever.”
by Culturevulture, Clifton
Friday, October 30 2009, 10:15PM
“Independent museums and cultural centres have always struggled to survive in Bristol. We lost the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, and we nearly lost the BOV. Without council commitment, it would be too easy to let the whole service wither, rather than give it the nourishment it so badly needs. There is great knowledge and expertise in the museums service in Bristol, but owing to the lengthy review that Paul Barnett the ACTING director instigated when head of Culture, there is very low morale. Do not let this short sighted man, who already thinks the Director's job has his name on it, become the head of the service or it will DIE.”
by The Hedgehog, Horfield
Friday, October 30 2009, 7:48PM
“I would like to announce the formation of my company, Gurt West.
We are available to tell our beloved council the Totally Obvious for the price of a few pints of Thatchers Dry - a good deal cheaper than 27K, I think you'll find, even at today's pub prices.”
by threedog, uk public service wasteland
Friday, October 30 2009, 6:19PM
“Another item from the Mandelson/Thatcher school of madness ?
Perhaps the council's museums and archives "select committee" should totally abdicate all their responsibilities to some consultants (oh sorry have they done that already?). Issuing a rebranded uniform to staff to solve all the financial short commings hahaha”
by Kleistocene, Bristol
Friday, October 30 2009, 5:31PM
“Privatisation is not the answer to everything. What is wrong with the city's museums that they need some massive overhaul? They seem to be one of our great assets. In David Hare's play about the current financial crisis, The Power of Yes, Adair Turner is quoted as saying on the subject of privatisation (and the arrogance of the private sector):
'Business is in some ways quite simple, it has clearly defined aims. The aim is to make money. So you have a measure against which to judge all the subsidiary actions which add up to the overall result. Managing a hospital is rather more complex. Because it is very hard to know what your objective is. There is no money-metric to help make the choice between better cancer care or having a better A & E. It's a judgment call.'
The same applies to a museum. Many of things which it does cannot be measured. How do you measure the impact on a group of eight-year olds of the chance to see real dinosaur bones or art and artefacts from another culture?”
by The Hedgehog, Horfield
Friday, October 30 2009, 4:26PM
“So they replace the excellent Industrial Museum with the imaginatively (and expensively) named M Shed, at a cost of 26 million. Then they privatise it, which will result in it be dumbed down even further.
If it wasn't Bristol City Council, you wouldn't believe it. Sadly, it's far too credible with our lot :(”
by Chris, Bristol
Friday, October 30 2009, 1:19PM
“Privatisation is a perfectly reasonable option. There are actual and potential income streams to exploit, not least the public funds that are already allocated.
A private operator would bid for the contract on the basis of what they could deliver and at what public cost. If they failed to deliver they could lose the contract.
They would of course ditch inefficient practices and unproductive staff, but that would be all for the good. What's not to like about privatisiation?”
by Paul, Shirehampton
Friday, October 30 2009, 12:05PM
“How can you privatise something that has no income? Farcical thinking from a farcical council.”
by Becky, Bristol
Friday, October 30 2009, 10:09AM
“It makes sense, look what happened to the Dome. It should've been given to a business like Tussauds to manage and market from the out set. None of the councils museums, really promote themselves very well. It would be good if the tourist board could create some stronger links with the various attractions.”
by Wyn, Totterdown
Friday, October 30 2009, 9:41AM
“With a Conservative group leader, it's hardly surprising that the museums have been earmarked for privatisation - such a move would be unprecedented and entirely catastrophic for the city's museum service - museums are places of learning not commercial enterprises. If they become commercial entreprises they would have to be dumbed right down to operate as cheap theme parks, complete with fast food joints, gambling outlets and bouncy castles. Privatisation leaves institutions at the mercy of market forces and market forces demand that everything - people, services, intellects - are reduced to the lowest common denominator.”