Museums Sheffield have had a difficult time in the last few years, compounded by the announcement that it is to receive a further £200,000 (10 per cent) cut in its service charge from Sheffield City Council from April, with likely year-on-year cuts still to come.
It lost out on Arts Council England Renaissance major grant funding early in 2012, worth £4.2m over three years, an event that triggered a change in leadership, a restructuring of its operations and the loss of 38 jobs.
Overall, its grant income has been reduced by £1,364,700 – a huge 37 per cent – since 2008, and this has already significantly affected the organisation’s Learning programme. A year ago this was run by a team of 22, now reduced to just three people for all three of the Museums Sheffield venues – Millennium Gallery, Weston Park and Graves Gallery.
This is the situation Museums Sheffield Chief Executive Kim Streets has faced since she took up the role in April 2012. She describes the challenges ahead of her in terms of “adapt or die”, and the organisation’s new business plan reflects the scale of adaptation required to survive.
The emphasis is on increasing income generation through a focus on retail, corporate hires, major donors and sponsorship, and increasing the number of ticketed events and bar sales. But this is a big funding gap to bridge – accompanying these changes will be another restructuring, with the likelihood of further staff redundancies.
The organisation gained strategic support funding from ACE in October 2012, worth £1,219,100 over 2½ years. This is in order to implement its new plans and become – if such a thing exists and is possible – the now requisite “leaner, stronger and more resilient organisation”.
“We’ve looked at every single line of our budget,” says Streets, “what that money goes on, and how we can make savings. What that has led to is a renewed emphasis on retail. We have three shops that do well but we are looking to increase our profitability from them.”
This, says Streets, will be done by becoming “more commercially savvy”, in terms of stock placement and staff training, but also by developing a uniqueness to the kinds of goods that visitors will find in them. “I want people to think that they will find something in our shops that they are not going to find anywhere else, and that in buying from us they will be making a contribution to Museums Sheffield’s charitable objectives.”
Does she think that there is enough money in Sheffield for her museum visitors to increase their spend? “We have to tailor ourselves to the market,” she admits.
“Sheffield is an incredibly diverse city,” she adds. “People have a wide set of experiences and budgets and we need to understand that. We’ve worked out what we need each visitor to spend, and it is only slightly more than they currently do.”
Significant worries have been voiced by the GMB union’s Regional Officer Peter Davies, who says: “Under the proposal, front line changes are planned that will see a shift in focus from well-staffed, interactive and safe exhibition spaces to more retail trade to make money to bridge the gap in funding.”
He is concerned that “a less well-staffed and secure environment will lead to falling visitor numbers. Also, as staff invigilation falls the GMB believes Museums Sheffield may have to renegotiate its partnerships and exhibit loans from other arts organisations.”
What is Streets’ response to these fears? “There will be fewer people in the visitor services team and it will have an impact, but we are confident that we are able to build in the insurances and other expenses into the cost of our invigilation, and ensure we are fulfilling our obligations to lenders.
“The change from next year onwards will be a sense of Sheffield being foregrounded through working with contemporary artists and working with our collections. Bringing in big touring shows does cost more, but this is not about a cheaper alternative – it’s about turning our attention to Sheffield’s important collections and putting them in the spotlight.”
She sums up: “Our new business plan is not without its challenges but we have to do it. We cannot do nothing. We are striving to find a business strategy that will help us survive the next few years. We just have to keep reviewing how we’re doing. We are in an economically unstable time and the only certain thing is change.”
More on a-n.co.uk:
Arts under further threat in Sheffield as museums’ budget cuts loom
Sustainable resurgence – Matthew Conduit speaks about the sustainability of artists’ activity in northern cities.
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