Best Value Review

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CONTENTS PAGE

PREFACE 2

THE SETTING AND PROCEDURES OF THE REVIEW 3 - 6

GLASGOW MUSEUMS 2001 7 - 14

ACCESS: SOCIAL INCLUSION AND LIFELONG LEARNING 15 - 22

CONSERVATION AND COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT: 23 - 32CARE,AUDIT AND ACCESS

EXHIBITION POLICIES 33 - 40

VISITOR SERVICES 41 - 50

VENUE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY 51 - 62

STAFFING 63 - 72

RESOURCES AND FUTURE FUNDING 73 - 78

NATIONAL FUNDING PARTNERSHIP 79 - 82

COSTED ACTION PLAN 83 - 106

Contents

B E S T VA L U E R E V I E WF I N A L R E P O R T • J U L Y 2 0 0 1

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BEST VALUE REVIEW

FINAL REPORT - JULY 2001

MUSEUMS, HERITAGE AND VISUAL ARTS

PART ONE

GLASGOW MUSEUMS

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Preface


PREFACE

This report is the work of the Core Group which has directed the Best Value Review of Museums,Visual Arts and Heritage. Responsibility for the viewsexpressed lies with the Core Group, not the CityCouncil or its Cultural and Leisure ServicesCommittee or department.

This Best Value Review is in two parts. This report isPart One and deals only with Museums and Galleries.A separate report, Part Two, will cover Visual Arts. Alater report to the Cultural and Leisure ServicesCommittee will propose a full-scale Best ValueReview on Heritage.

The report is published for debate and considerationby the citizens and City Council of Glasgow. It willthen be for the City Council to decide what actionshould be taken on the Core Group’s recommendations.

We hope that the work will speak for itself.Thereare, nevertheless, two aspects of the report to whichwe wish to draw special attention.

The first is that it is the unanimous view of the CoreGroup that more, not less, needs to be spent onGlasgow Museums if Best Value is to be achieved.Thismay come as a surprise to those who assume thatBest Value must always be about cutting costs.

The report details how costs have been cut in recentyears and the effects these cuts have had on theservice provided by Glasgow Museums.

It also shows what additional resources will beneeded if Glasgow Museums are to retain their placeamong the United Kingdom’s premier museums andgalleries, and play their proper part in theachievement of educational, social inclusion and urbanrenewal goals which have been set by the CityCouncil and people of Glasgow as well as by theScottish Parliament and Executive. It makes apowerful case for national funding.

In setting out these facts it is the Core Group’sintention to indicate the scale of the challenge facingthe people of Glasgow and indeed of Scotland. IfScotland wants to retain one of the best museumsservices in the United Kingdom, Scotland mustrecognise the level of resources needed.

The second point is that the Core Group have notpresumed to dictate to the City Council one courseof action that should be taken.The report showswhat could be achieved by a range of actions, frominternal changes to achieve greater efficiency, tosecuring additional national funding.The basicrecommendation in all cases is that the Councilshould examine all the options, consult fully followingstandard procedures, and then take decisive action toachieve a sustainable balance between tasks and resources.

Bailie John Lynch, Co-Convenor

Bailie Dr Christopher Mason, Co-Convenor

1 1 THE SETTING

As part of its commitment to Best Value,Glasgow CityCouncil in 1998 established Cultural andLeisure Services which brought together the formerservices for Performing Arts and Venues, Museumsand Art Galleries, Libraries and Archives, and Sport,Recreation and Play. Glasgow City Council also gave acommitment to review all Council activities on aregular basis and it was agreed to review theMuseums, Heritage and Visual Arts Services as part ofits 1999/2000 Service Review Programme.

The Review was set within the context of theCity Council’s Key Objectives 1999-2002, and itsstrategic objectives for Cultural and Leisure Serviceswhich include:-

• “To promote and maximise the contribution ofculture and leisure in Glasgow in achieving the keypriorities of education and lifelong learning;improved health; urban regeneration; social inclusionand economic development.

• To ensure that all the people of Glasgow haveaccess to cultural and leisure facilities and servicesincluding information services whatever their age,gender, disability, race or sexual orientation;wherever they live within the City and taking intoaccount their ability to pay.

• To strengthen the support, links and partnershipwith the voluntary and community sector, and inparticular local arts, sports and play organisations,artists, writers, volunteers and coaches indeveloping and promoting the intrinsic value ofcultural and leisure activities in Glasgow.

• To enrich the quality of life of the citizens ofGlasgow and visitors to the City through theprovision of accessible, attractive and excitingcultural and leisure facilities and services.

• To enhance and promote the City’s national andinternational image as a creative, cosmopolitan city,a centre for arts, sporting and cultural excellence.

• To conserve and preserve important historical andcultural materials, collections and knowledge for thebenefit of all Glasgow’s citizens and visitors to the city.”

The aim of the Review is to develop policiesfor Museums, Heritage and Visual Arts and in doing soto maximise their contribution to social inclusion,lifelong education, economic development,and tourism.

All those engaged in the Review were aware from the outset that Glasgow City Council owns oneof the great civic collections in Western Europe, withart, science and historical collections of internationaland national as well as local importance.These arehoused in architecturally important buildings, and playa major part in the life of the city. Glasgow has adedicated museum-visiting population, with peoplefrom the city making over 1.17 million visits to themuseums in 1998/99, along with 1.26 million from therest of Scotland, and 540,000 visitors from elsewherein the UK and overseas. A vibrant visual arts culture,centred around Glasgow School of Art, the Council’sgalleries, independent and private-sector galleries andstudios, and involving as many as 1,000 individualartists, has enhanced the quality of life in the city andits reputation as an international cultural centre.Thecultural, social and economic importance of theseresources makes the city’s Museums and Visual Artsof major importance, not just for Glasgow but forScotland as a whole.

The Review will, however, focus attention onshortcomings in the service:-

• Resources are not sufficient to realise the museums’potential contribution to education and lifelong learning

• The museums service is not successful enough inreaching or attracting Social Inclusion target audiences

• The Council needs to develop a strategic policy forthe conservation and care of, and access to,the city’s collections

• The museums service needs to make improvementsin staff management, organisation and development;buildings maintenance; and developing and improvingthe quality of visitor services, in particular catering

• The Council needs to develop the case for longer-term national funding

• There is no visual arts strategy for the city

• The city does not have a coherent heritage strategy.

1CHAPTERThe Setting and Procedures of the Review


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1 2 THE REVIEW PROCESS

A common process has been established bythe City Council for carrying out all Best ValueReviews, which contains a number of key themes.

These include:-

• the requirement for the Council to be clear aboutwhat it wants each service to achieve

• the need to assess thoroughly the effectiveness ofthe service

• the search for improvements and where necessarybetter methods of delivery

• the integration of the principles of Best Value intothe Council’s management processes.

The Review of Museums, Heritage and Visual Arts Services went through a process which includedresearch, public consultation and meetings withexperts, and which was co-ordinated by a Core Group.

1 2 1 RESEARCH

Research was carried out by Cultural and Leisure Services during the period April - June 1999;It covered:-

• An audit of current resources, organisations,policies, strategies, visitor information, usage trendsand economic information across the range ofmuseums, heritage and visual arts resources,services and collections

• An analysis of visitor surveys carried out at all CityCouncil Museums during 1998

• “Benchmarking” comparisons of the museumsservice with other local authority and nationalmuseums. Detailed comparisons were made withhow funds are allocated by the National Museumsof Scotland, National Gallery of Scotland,Tyne andWear Museums, Dundee City Museums andBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Comparatorswere also drawn from data provided by the Groupfor Large Local Authority Museums (GLLAM) andDCMS reports on excellence in national museums.

• Preparation of a report which brought together theinformation, issues and conclusions from theresearch (Appendix 1).

1 2 2 CONSULTATION

The review had at its heart an innovative andextensive process of consultation and involvementencompassing the public, staff, elected councillors,trade unions, national and local organisations, andindividual artists.Two of the consultation procedureswere specific to the Museums Service, which is alarge employer and is regarded by the public as adirect service provider.

1 2 3 AN OPEN SPACE EVENT

This was a one-day event (held on 17 June 1999)involving national, independent, commercial andcommunity organisations in Museums, Heritage andthe Visual Arts in Glasgow.

The purpose of the Open Space event was to:-

• Present the information and principal conclusionsfrom the Research Report

• Identify and discuss the key strategic issues andpriorities for Museums, Heritage and Visual Arts.

This was the first Open Space event to be held inGlasgow and it gave everyone the opportunity toparticipate and bring forward their individualconcerns and aspirations and to have their ideasvoted on at the end of the day.The key prioritiesarising from the vote were then discussed further ata programme of key issue workshops (see 1.2.5).

1 2 4 CORE GROUP

The Council established a Core Group, whosemembers were:

Bailie John Lynch, Co-Convenor of Core Group

Bailie Dr Christopher Mason,Co-Convenor of Core Group

Bailie Liz Cameron, Convenor of Cultural and LeisureServices Committee

Councillor Alex Glass, Glasgow City Council

Bailie Ruth Simpson, Glasgow City Council

Jane Ryder, Director of Scottish Museums Council

John R Hume, Formerly of Historic Scotland

Ruth Wishart, Centre for Contemporary Arts

Amanda Catto, Acting Visual Arts Director,Scottish Arts Council

Deborah Haase, Unison Convenor, Cultural andLeisure Services (Museums)

1CHAPTER The Setting and Procedures of the Review


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William McGonigle,Transport and General(Museums), Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Phil Parry,Transport and General (Museums),Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Duncan Ferguson, Chair of Staff Panel, Cultural andLeisure Services (Museums)

Gayle McPherson, Glasgow Caledonian University

Bridget McConnell, Director of Cultural and Leisure Services

Christine Hamilton, Depute Director of Cultural andLeisure Services

Ian Hooper, Head of Forward Planning, Projects andBuildings, Cultural and Leisure Services

Mark O’Neill, Head of Museums and Galleries,Cultural and Leisure Services

Jill Miller, Head of Arts, Cultural and Leisure Services

Julie Tait, Head of Marketing and CommercialDevelopment, Cultural and Leisure Services

Ian Tully,Acting Depute Director, Financial Services

Joe Larkin, Strategic Planning Manager, Cultural andLeisure Services (Secretariat)

Eona Craig, Forward Planning, Cultural and LeisureServices (Secretariat)

The remit of the Core Group was to:-

• Lead, develop and co-ordinate the strategicdirection of the Review

• Agree the process and timescale of the Review

• Agree the key issues identified at the Open Spaceevent and other key issues to be addressed by the Review

• Consider the policies and actions proposed toaddress the key issues

• Report to the Cultural and Leisure Services Committee.

1 2 5 PROGRAMME OF WORKSHOPS

A programme of eight workshops was arranged todebate the key issues and priorities which hadattracted most votes at the Open Space event.Thisbrought in 176 representatives of organisationsinvolved in Museums, Heritage and Visual Arts, as wellas individual artists.

The workshops provided the opportunity to exploreproblems in more depth and develop recommend-ations which could then inform policy for Museums,Heritage and Visual Arts in the city.

1 2 6 MUSEUMS SERVICE STAFF PANEL

Cultural and Leisure Services set up a Staff Panel.Thisinvolved staff from across the museums service andprovided a forum for staff to discuss the key issuesand priorities and feed their views directly into theCore Group through staff representation on that group.

1 2 7 PEOPLE’S PANEL ON THE MUSEUMS SERVICE

A People’s Panel was set up in the form of a secondOpen Space event (held on 6 November 1999) toexamine the public’s perception of the MuseumsService and how it could be improved.

MoRI Scotland identified 75 people from the CityCouncil’s Citizens’ Panel who were broadlyrepresentative of Glasgow’s population in terms ofage, sex, and socio-economic profile and reflected theproportion of Glasgow’s citizens who visit the city’smuseums. Panel members were encouraged to visit atleast one museum before the Open Space event.The52 citizens who participated discussed matters ofconcern to the public and to museums staff, andvoted on their priorities for action.

1 2 8 CONSULTATION ON THE DRAFTBEST VALUE REVIEW REPORT

The draft Best Value Review Report of GlasgowMuseums was approved by the Cultural and LeisureServices Committee on 20 June 2000 for wider consultation.

A major consultation exercise involving the public,staff, and a range of national, independent, commercialand community organisations was undertaken fromJuly through to September 2000. By the end of thisperiod 170 responses had been received.

A report summarising the responses received andrecommending the actions required in addressingthese responses was approved by the Review CoreGroup at its meeting of 5 November 2000.

As part of the Best Value Review, consultants werecommissioned to undertake reviews of GlasgowMuseums catering and retail operations and security provision.

This Best Value Review Report incorporates theoutcome of these reviews and the feedback from theconsultation exercise.

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1 3 STRUCTURE OF THE REVIEW REPORT

The Core Group decided on 31 March 2000that it would issue its Best Value Review Report intwo parts, dealing first with Museums and ArtGalleries, and then with Visual Arts.A separatecorporate Best Value Review will be carried out onHeritage by Development and Regeneration Services,starting in 2001.

1 3 1 PART ONE - MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

This comprises:-

• The context of current service provision in termsof national and local policy, staffing and resources,visitor trends,“benchmarking”, market researchfindings and feedback from the consultationexercise.

• Detailed examination of:-

- Access to museums and art galleries and theircontribution to social inclusion and lifelong learning

- Conservation, care and access with respect to thecollections, including those now in storage

- The development of an exhibition policy

- Visitor services such as access, catering, retail,customer care, marketing and promotion

- Venue development strategies for each of theMuseums and Galleries, to address buildingmaintenance and priorities for capital investment

- Staff management, organisation and development

- The case for national funding partnerships andother management and partnership options

• A costed 5-year action plan based on first thecurrent level of resources and then an increase inresources, and incorporating performance measuresand targets.

1 3 2 PART TWO - VISUAL ARTS

The draft of this was published in February 2001 and comprises:-

• The context of current service provision, nationaland local policy, visual arts trends and feedbackfrom the Best Value consultation exercise.

• Proposals for:-

- Support and development of individual artists andarts organisations

- Developing a market for art

• A costed action plan, incorporating performancemeasures and targets.

In October 2000 the City Council agreed toundertake a corporate review on Heritage which willbe lead by Development and Regeneration Services.Cultural and Leisure Services will contribute to thisBest Value Review which is scheduled to start in2001.

Appendices on all the reports are available onapplication to the Director of Cultural and LeisureServices, 20 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5ES.

1CHAPTER The Setting and Procedures of the Review


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2 1 THE POLICY GOAL

Glasgow Museums is the generic name of the service which manages the City Council’s collectionof museums and art galleries, which the new unitarycouncil inherited in 1996 from the former Districtand Regional Councils and the old Corporation ofGlasgow.The collection is the biggest managed by anylocal authority in the United Kingdom and one of ahandful of municipal collections which are recognisedto have national importance.These facts bear witnessto the commitment which the city’s leaders haveshown over many generations to culture andeducation as essential to the vitality of its people.TheVictorians who founded the city’s collections sawpublic museums and art galleries as instruments ofsocial improvement-elements as essential as schoolsand libraries to their great project of raising thequality of life through education, science, industry, artand religion.Above all they valued learning, and thisaspect of the museum’s role is still emphasised today.

“The Corporation at least were satisfied that art wasin itself a refining and improving and enobling thing,otherwise they would not have felt justified in doingwhat they have done in order to provide for thereception of so many of the citizens to view thetreasures that would henceforward be housed in thebuilding.And there was the question of theeducational value of the museum and the opportu-nities afforded the young people and the lads andgirls who had possibly outgrown the ordinary dayschool and others for still further pursuing theirstudies, and so broadening and enlarging their general culture.”(Lord Provost Chisholm at the opening ofKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum 25 October 1902)

For example, the 1999 publication from the UKDepartment of Culture, Media and Sports,“ACommonwealth, Museums in the Learning Age”,provides the following statement regarding the valueand role of museums:-

“Museums at their finest are universal educationalinstitutions of immense expressive power andauthority.They communicate with us acrossboundaries of language, culture and time, and suggestcomparisons which illuminate our experience of thepresent [...].Through museums, we have directcontact with people of all ages and cultures,experience the unimaginable variety of the naturalworld and expand our understanding of what itmeans to be human.”

This value attached to museums and art galleries asengines of education is widely held throughout theworld. Here, for example, is how the Swedish

Parliamentary Commission on Museums expressed it in 1994:-

“There are those who claim that museums aremostly for fun, or that preservation of artefacts fromthe past is an end in itself.We argue that museumsare in the service of society and consequently mustoffer both learning and entertainment but the singlemost important objective of museums is to help uslearn, as individuals and in society.”

It is recognised that Glasgow Museums have a veryimportant job to do in respect of the preservationand study of objects, and have a part to play in theleisure and tourism businesses, but the Core Groupasserts that their most important value to modernsociety is the contribution they can make to lifelonglearning; and the City Council is entitled to expectthat Glasgow Museums will be judged on theireducational performance and resourced according tothe priority which the Scottish Parliament and peoplehave accorded to education in its broadest sense. Inorder to deliver the Museums’ contribution tolifelong learning and education, it is essential thatobjects be preserved and studied, and indeedcollected.

2 2 NATIONAL CULTURAL STRATEGY

Following extensive consultation the ScottishExecutive, in August 2000, published Scotland’s firstNational Cultural Strategy “Creating our Future:Minding our Past”.The Strategy looks at how culturalactivities can contribute to the priorities of educationand lifelong learning; social inclusion and health andwellbeing; and economic development and tourism.The Strategy outlines the following four strategic objectives:-

• Promoting creativity, the Arts, and other cultural activity

• Celebrating Scotland’s cultural heritage in its full diversity

• Realising culture’s potential contribution toeducation, promoting inclusion and enhancingpeople’s quality of life

• Assuring an effective national support frameworkfor culture.

The Strategy outlines a proposal to conduct anational audit of Scotland’s Museums and Galleriescollections, identifying that which is of National,Regional and Local significance. Following the audit itis anticipated that a coherent and relevant frameworkto support and develop the nation’s Museums andGalleries will be devised. In particular, it states that itwill “In the shorter term, work with the City of

2CHAPTERGlasgow Museums 2001


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Glasgow Council to examine the circumstances ofthe museums and galleries in the City.”

The Scottish Executive has now agreed that thenational audit of Glasgow’s Collection will becompleted before the end of 2001 and form the basisfor early discussions regarding possible nationalfunding support.

The City Council has already set education asits first objective for museums policy (see paragraph1.1).This commitment is supported at the nationallevel.The key policy statements relating to museums are:-

• The National Strategy for Scotland’s Museums(1999) which recognises that museums are amongstScotland’s greatest cultural, educational, social andeconomic assets and identifies the need to developa coherent policy framework for museums andadopt a more strategic approach to funding

• The Scottish Museums Council’s Education Policy(1999-2000) which seeks to promote and develophigh quality museum education services in order toencourage wide access to non-national museums.

The other relevant national strategies are theNational Tourism Strategy (1999) which assigns amajor role to museums and galleries in respect ofcultural development and tourism and the emergingNational Cultural Strategy.The significant contri-bution of Museums and Art Galleries to economicdevelopment and tourism is recognised locally in twopolicy statements:-

• the Glasgow Alliance Strategy - “Creating Tomorrow’s Glasgow”

• “Glasgow’s Renewed Prosperity - A Joint EconomicStrategy” involving the City Council and GlasgowDevelopment Agency.

2 3 THE POSITION NOW

The present state of Glasgow Museums isdescribed in the Research Report issued in June1999.The main facts are summarised in the rest ofthis chapter.

2 3 1 Glasgow Museums currently has 13 facilities,each of which is described briefly in chapter 7:

• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

• Burrell Collection

• Gallery of Modern Art

• Museum of Transport

• People’s Palace

• Provands Lordship

• St Mungo’s Museum

• Fossil Grove

• Scotland Street School Museum

• McLellan Gallery (currently leased out to CCA)

• Pollok House (currently managed by the NationalTrust for Scotland)

• Martyrs’ School (conservation workshop)

• collections store at Maryhill.

2 3 2 There are also 11 independent museums,galleries and similar establishments in Glasgow:

• Clyde Maritime Centre at Kelvinhaugh (ClydeMaritime Trust)

• Collins Gallery (University of Strathclyde)

• Glasgow School of Art

• Heatherbank Museum (based in CaledonianUniversity - Social Work Collection)

• House for an Art Lover (operated by the School ofArt)

• Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum (University ofGlasgow)

• Kelvin Museum (University of Glasgow)

• Lighthouse

• Maritime Museum at Braehead (operated byScottish Maritime Museum)

• Museum of Anatomy (University of Glasgow)

• Museum of Zoology (University of Glasgow)

• Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum

• Springburn Museum (local trust)

• Tenement House (National Trust)

2 3 3 Glasgow City Council’s total budget for theoperations of its Museums Service in 2000/2001 is£16,920,700 (£16.92 million), an increase of £2.83million on the 1999/2000 budget due to the fact thatdepreciation of buildings has been included for thefirst time.The net total budget (after income) for2000/2001 is £15,871,500 (£15.87 million). It shouldbe noted that the income target for 2000/2001 hasbeen reduced by £210,000 on the previous yearbecause a more realistic estimate of incomegeneration has been taken by the Service.

2CHAPTER Glasgow Museums 2001


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Expenditure 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01£ £ £

Employee Costs1 6,027,700 6,175,4002 6,598,4002

Property Costs include:- 2,827,900 2,934,6003 2,914,5004

Rates (1,239,300) (1,235,500) (1,266,400)Building Maintenance5 (485,700) (485,700) (485,700)Other Property Costs (includes Energy, Cleaning and Security costs) (1,102,900) (1,213,400) (1,162,400)Supplies and Services 480,300 314,8006 372,3007

Transport and Admin. Costs8 384,100 318,200 293,200Payments to Third Parties 105,000 286,0009 136,000Exhibitions 356,60010 356,00011 356,00011

Marketing 118,500 118,500 131,50012

10,300,100 10,503,500 10,801,900Support Services 520,40013 348,40014 358,900Central Admin. 393,900 402,00015 675,30016

Capital Charges17 2,861,700 2,836,400 5,084,60018

3,776,000 3,586,800 6,118,800TOTAL 14,076,100 14,090,300 16,920,700

Income 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01£ £ £

Donations 60,000 60,000 60,000Retailing 613,700 624,600 539,20019

Catering 298,100 307,10020 245,00021

Venue Hire 189,600 207,80020 180,00021

Other Income 29,800 30,70020 25,00021

1,191,200 1,230,200 1,049,200

Net Total 12,884,900 12,860,100 15,871,500

A summary of Glasgow Museums budget for 2000/2001 follows.

GLASGOW MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES: REVENUE BUDGET (APPROVED BY COUNCIL)

1 Includes shop staff.2 The increases in employment costs between 1998/99 and 2000/01 are made up of inflation, an increase in superannuation and pension contributions

and a base Budget Adjustment to take account of lower then predicted staff turnover.3 The increase over the previous year is due to the costs of reopening the McLellan Galleries and Provands Lordship, as well as an allowance for inflation.4 The change from the previous year is due to increases due to inflation and fire insurance, and a virement of £82,000 to Supplies and Services5 The unchanged level of the maintenance budget means a reduction in real terms due to inflation.6 Reduction from 1998/99 is chiefly due to transfer of funds to the CCA to open McLellan (£181,000).7 Increase due to virement of £82,000 from Property Costs, and inflation.8 Reductions due to budget cuts to achieve council saving targets.9 Virement of £181,000 from Supplies and Services to open McLellan Galleries (see note 6).10 Include £200,000 from Contemporary Art Fund, which did not operate at all that year.11 Includes £100,000 from Contemporary Art Fund, which operated at 50% of its original level that year.The static cash value of the exhibition budget

implies a real terms reduction due to inflation each year.12 Increase is due to a Base Budget Adjustment in income targets (£13,000).13 Support Services is based on the budgeted posts removed from mainstream Museums and Galleries at reorganisation.14 Support Services is 1998/99 less the 35% cut required for savings.15 Central Admin and Capital Charges are apportioned on the basis of 1998/99 budgets.16 Increase in payments to other Council departments17 Central Admin Charges recalculated as result of Council reorganisation. Costs are an estimate.18 Increase due to building depreciation being included for the first time.19 This represents net income after purchase of merchandise i.e. does not include staff costs.20 Increase income target at level of inflation.21 Reduced income target agreed as Base Budget adjustment.

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2 3 4 In financial years 1996/97, 1997/98 and 1998/99 the Museums and Galleries Service has takenbudget cuts totalling £2,652,700, and the loss of over100 staff.The major areas of job losses were as follows:

Museum Assistants 71

Other Corporate Services 6

Curatorial 9

Conservation and Collections Management 14

Design Department 15

Total 115

Separately, the Education Department, which fundsthe Museum Education Service, reduced the numberof professional and technical staff from 14 to 1 post.This brings the total staff loss to 128.

The service is currently managed under the followingsix sections: Curatorial, Open Museum, Conservationand Collections Management, Creative Services,House Management and Education. It has a totalstaffing complement of 328 full-time equivalents.

2 3 5 The research undertaken at the start of theReview found formidable strengths in Glasgow Museums:

• The range, quality and depth of collections: GlasgowMuseums have the highest quality and most wide-ranging collection of art, history, technology andnatural history of any non-national museum in theUK. Glasgow’s collections comprise a major culturalresource for the city and for Scotland.Thecollection as a whole is of national significance andsubstantial areas of it are of national and international importance.

• There is free access to the Council’s museums andgalleries (as well as to some of the independents).

• The Council’s network of 13 Museums andGalleries is housed in a mixture of grand, traditionalbuildings of historical and architectural importance.The Gallery of Modern Art, Kelvingrove Art Galleryand Museum, Provands Lordship and Scotland StreetSchool Museum are all Category A listed buildingsand the People’s Palace is Category B listed.

• The Open Museum has established a reputation asone of the innovators of museum access throughoutreach in the UK.

• Glasgow Museums attract large, diverse and loyalaudiences with approximately 3 million visits eachyear. Research carried out in 1998/99 indicated that39% of visitors are from within Glasgow City, 42%are from the rest of Scotland, 12% from the rest of

the UK and 6% from outwith the UK.

• Glasgow Museums make a significant contributionto the City’s economy and tourist income: five ofGlasgow’s museums are in the top 20 most visitedScottish museums and galleries.

2 3 6 Economic Impact of Glasgow Museums

The 1999 Glasgow Development Agency Report“Upbeat Glasgow” quantifies the economic benefitsGlasgow Museums bring to the city, and byimplication to the rest of Scotland. In particular itreported that:

• The total visitor spend associated with tourists andday visitors attending arts and cultural events andvenues amounts to £158.4 million.

• Of this amount, 83% (£131 million) is associatedwith visits to museums and galleries.

• Overseas holiday tourists accounted for 53% (£84million) of visitor spend.

• The total additional benefits generated by tourists is £110 million, 90% of which is associated withvisitors attending Museums and Galleries.

• It is estimated that 5,557 jobs are supported byvisitors to the city who use Arts and Cultural facilities.

This clearly places museums in Glasgow, and partic-ularly those run by the City Council, at the heart ofthe West of Scotland’s economic as well as its cultural infrastructure.

2 3 7 The research also found some very seriousweaknesses, which must be remedied if GlasgowMuseums are to achieve their policy goal and keeptheir leading place:

• From 1996 to 1999 the new Council found itselfcompelled to make successive budget cuts whichhave resulted in the loss of 30% of the budget and100 posts (32% of staff) from the Museums andGalleries Service.The cut in staffing levels has had avery damaging impact on curatorial and conser-vation work, as well as on design, front-of-houseand administrative staffing.

• The service’s staffing levels are now very low:benchmarking shows a staffing complement of 10.29full-time equivalents per 100,000 visits, which is wellbelow the average staffing complement of thebenchmarking partners of 24.67 per 100,000 visits.

• Glasgow consequently has the highest number ofvisitors per staff member of any large municipal ornational museum service in the UK.



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• Another consequence is that the service is not fullyrealising its potential contribution to education andlifelong learning.The benchmarking exerciseindicated that Education is the most underfundedand understaffed aspect of the museums service,with employee numbers and expenditure beingapproximately a tenth of the average expenditure ofits benchmarking partners, and the number of staffin the Museums Education Service having beenreduced from 14 posts to 1 since 1996. (Seeparagraph 8.3.2 for proposal for additionaleducation staff.)

• The service is either not reaching or is notattracting socio-economic groups C2, D and E.Market research carried out by Lowland Researchat seven City Council museums during 1998/99found that only 33% of visitors to Glasgow’smuseums and galleries are from households in theC2, D and E socio-economic groups, compared with67% from groups A, B and C1. (These are averagesand the percentages vary from venue to venue.Analysis of Glasgow residents also shows a slightlydifferent picture, with 58% of visitors in the A, B andC1 categories and 42% in the C2, D and Ecategories. Further information will be found inparagraph 3.7.)

• There is comparatively low investment in themarketing and promotion of Glasgow Museums.Thebenchmarking undertaken as part of the Reviewfound that total marketing and commercialdevelopment promotion costs for the Serviceamounts to £49 per 1,000 visits, the lowestamongst all the benchmarking partners and wellbelow the average of £151 per 1,000 visits.

• Catering and retail services do not appear to satisfyvisitors’ needs: visitors to Glasgow Museums spendon average £0.69 per head, the second lowestspend per visitor amongst the benchmarkingpartners.

• A range of building, display and propertymanagement issues in the museums and gallerieshave not been dealt with.Assuming that therefurbishment and redisplay at Kelvingroveproceeds, major expenditure will still be needed forroof repairs and upgrading to the BuildingManagement System at the Burrell, and for theheating system at the Museum of Transport which isresulting in damage to the Collection.

• There is no significant temporary exhibitionprogramme or policy.

2 4 THE CONSULTATIONS

The Research Report which set out thisappraisal of strengths and weaknesses was given tothose who took part in the Open Space events andthe workshops, so it is perhaps not surprising thatthemes in the Report were taken up vigorously inthese consultations.The Core Group is howeverclear that the concerns expressed by participantswere genuine, serious and need to be addressed.Although the emphasis was naturally on problemsand solutions, there was also recognition of thestrengths, actual and potential, of Glasgow Museumsand of the desire of all those engaged in the serviceto make the changes which will result in thosestrengths being fully realised.

In the following paragraphs, the views of theparticipants are given in the terms in which theywere expressed at the time.

2 4 1 With regard to Glasgow’s Museums andGalleries, the following were voted as the toppriorities to be addressed by the Review at the OpenSpace event held in June 1999:-

i) A new vision for Glasgow’s museums focusing onquality and which builds on getting the basics rightand on partnerships to achieve internationallycompetitive museums and galleries.

ii) A new vision for Glasgow’s museums focusing onaccess and education and achieving widest possibleaccess to give equality of outcomes for all, butespecially for currently excluded groups.

iii) Longer-term commitment, sustainability and corefunding to be given for lifelong learning andeducation in Glasgow’s museums.

iv) Care of Heritage Collections and the creation of a new visitor facility which will provide increasedcare and access to the City’s combined heritage collections.

v) The social purpose of Glasgow’s museums and thequality of experience.

vi) Concern over lack of training in Museums andGalleries and the need for the Council to give acommitment to formal training.

vii) Enhanced funding and how to achieve this and themetropolitan and national status of Glasgow’smuseums and galleries.

viii) How can museums support employment in the City?



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2 4 2 Five of the Open Space workshops which were established as a consequence of the June OpenSpace event brought forward proposals for theMuseums and Galleries to the Core Group (theother three dealt with Visual Arts and Heritage).

i) Access: Social Inclusion, Education and Lifelong Learning.

This proposed the following strategic priorities forthe service:-

a) To be a force for learning in Glasgow.

b) To target resources and effort at areas of greatest need.

c) To define and seek to raise standards based onpublic need and expectation.

d) To involve people through consultation and market research.

e) To implement a strategic approach to planning.

f) To develop a service which connects with people’slives and interests through programmes, displaysand outreach.

ii) Develop an Exhibition Policy/Framework for Glasgow.

This workshop proposed the following strategic priorities:-

a) To develop a formal communication infrastructurebetween stakeholders, allowing strategic andcentralised planning.

b) To audit resources:- stakeholders, venues,collections, skills, finance, research, education,interpretation and marketing.

c) To work with stakeholders, ensuring advocacy onbehalf of artists and to identify what is needed in Glasgow.

d) To challenge existing processes for exhibitions inrespect of content, length, size, venues andpromotion of work.

e) To develop partnerships with external agencies.

f) To develop a consistent approach toevaluation/feedback with other external agencies.

This workshop’s desired outcomes in respect ofexhibition policy were the development of aflexible framework in the city which would definerole, allow communication, ensure standards and increase accessibility.

iii) Develop a Policy on Collections.

This workshop identified the following strategic priorities:-

a) An audit of collections.

b) Establishment of a strategic forum for exchangeof information, to inform management decisions,to build partnerships, to be an advocate for thecollections, and to agree joint standards.

c) To review and develop collecting/disposal policieswhich are informed by the public and other institutions.

d) To audit and invest in the skills and facilitiesrequired to acquire, research, document and makethe collections accessible.

e) To develop and market the collections for nowand the future and for formal and informaleducation and enjoyment, social inclusion and thepromotion of the city world-wide.

f) Clarification of management priorities of staff andother resources in order to produce morefocused targets.

The workshop’s desired outcome for thecollections is to provide expertise and facilities tomaintain, develop, promote and provide access.

iv) Develop a city-wide strategy for theConservation and Care of Collections andAccess to them.


a) To identify what objects Glasgow has in itscollections and what condition they are in.

b) To identify partnerships, particularly with other“major players”.

c) To improve the physical environment for thecollections, principally via the development of apurpose-designed central store/heritage store andthe development of conservation standards.

d) To improve staff and public access to informationabout collections throughout Glasgow throughdocumentation and improved electronic access.

e) To improve public access to collections.

f) To identify appropriate resources and in particularadequate expertise to manage, curate andconserve the collections.



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v) Marketing and Audience Development.


a) Need for a city-wide audience developmentagency to co-ordinate research and the sharingand dissemination of information.

b) Development of an education strategy as a meansof broadening attendances.

c) Investment in products with the right quality tomeet visitor interests and expectations.

d) Need for a city-wide marketing strategy.

2 4 3 The People’s Panel event, November 1999

The top seven priorities supported by the 52members of the public in the voting at the end of this event were as follows in rank order:-

i) Advertise in a child-friendly way, and send videos toschools.It is essential to engage the next generation asearly as possible to take an interest in, and use,museums etc., and this should be done using thebest and most effective of modern media. (28 Votes)

ii) Have a dedicated bus service between museums.One of the main barriers to people accessingmuseums and art galleries is a dedicated, efficient,easy-to-use, cost-effective public transport system.(26 Votes)

iii) More advertising and information on “what’s on”in Museums and Galleries.It is not always clear where the information is onevents and exhibitions, and local newspapers andradio could be used more. Individual sites do notnecessarily know what is on at others, or evenwhere the other buildings are! (25 Votes)

iv) Employ staff members who can relate to andengage children.Children need to be attracted and engaged, andcan be by specially designed events andapproaches. Staff might have to be new, or to beretrained. (24 Votes)

v) Use new technology and interactive displays totheir best advantage.Appeal to all types of learning styles by theimaginative use of as many “hands-on” displays,and as much interactive technology as possible,to avoid the “dusty exhibits in display cases” situation. (20 Votes)

vi) Improve exhibitions and resources.

This relates to the use of archive material, therotation of displays, and also the use of somesmall buildings which are cramped. (18 Votes)

vii) Better co-ordinated and cheaper transportThis is connected to the second point, in thattransport from outer Glasgow areas into thecentre, and across the city, can be complicatedand expensive for all people, but especiallyfamilies with children. (15 Votes)

2 4 4 Despite staff dedication and very highstandards being achieved in specific projects, the long-term impact of staff and budget reductions has meantthat the overall quality of the service is deterioratingand every aspect of the service has been affected; thisincludes in particular the care of the collection whichas a whole is of national significance and which hassubstantial areas of national and internationalimportance. Also affected have been display,maintenance, visitor services and Glasgow Museums’ability to contribute properly to the social inclusionand education and lifelong learning agendas. Unlessthe City Council is enabled to secure the necessarylevel of funding for Glasgow Museums as aconsequence of this Best Value Review, then thequality of the service will inevitably continue todeteriorate.



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3 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter considers access to museums andgalleries, with special reference to two objectiveswhich the City Council wants to achieve:-

i) making the Museums and Galleries accessible andrelevant to everyone and in particular to thosepeople who, for a variety of reasons, are socially excluded

ii) developing the Museums and Galleries as an agentfor social change by enhancing their role in lifelong learning.

3 2 SOCIAL INCLUSION:THE POLICYFRAMEWORK

The Core Group has looked at access in the contextof policies adopted by the City Council and theScottish Executive, and in the light of views expressedby those consulted in the course of this review. InGlasgow social inclusion is being promoted throughthe City Council’s Key Objectives 1999/2002. Ofparticular relevance to social inclusion is thefollowing statement which reflects the interlockingnature of all aspects of life in the city, and the need totackle exclusion on a broad front:

“Sustain the physical, social, economic, cultural andenvironmental development and regeneration ofGlasgow through:-- education and learning- private and public investments, and- housing, educational, leisure and fiscal measures”

This Council key objective reflects the ScottishExecutive’s aim of tackling social inclusion byachieving improved outcomes through bettereducational achievement, increased employmentprospects, improved health and wellbeing, andreduced crime.The commitment to social inclusionthrough education and culture is also expected to bea major element in the Scottish Executive’s nationalcultural strategy due to be published this year.

The City Council’s commitment to promoting socialinclusion is supported by the views of the variousstakeholders who were consulted as part of theReview. One of the top priorities voted by particip-ants at the Open Space Event was to develop therole of museums and galleries in promoting socialinclusion and supporting social regeneration; and oneof the issues raised by the People’s Panel was theresponsibility of the Museums and Galleries tosupport socially disadvantaged groups within the city.

At a national level the role of museums in promotingsocial inclusion is recognised by the Scottish SocialInclusion Network. In March 1999, the UK

Government (Scottish Office) and the Networkagreed a Social Inclusion Strategy,“Social Inclusion -opening the door to a better Scotland”, which hasfour main strands: to promote opportunities (inwork, learning and society); to tackle barriers toinclusion; to promote inclusion among children andyoung people; and to build stronger communities. Itsets out a programme of work which includespromoting and encouraging opportunities toparticipate in society through the arts and culture.This was further built upon by the publication inNovember 1999 of the “Social Justice Framework:AScotland Where Everyone Matters” which was agreedby the Scottish Executive and the Social InclusionNetwork.The same idea has been expressed by theUK Department of Culture, Media and Sports(DCMS) Social Exclusion Policy Action Team for Artsand Sport which has declared the following aim:-

“To promote the involvement in culture and leisureactivities of those at risk of social disadvantage ormarginalisation, particularly by virtue of the areathey live in, their disability, poverty, age, racial orethnic origin.To improve the quality of people’s livesby those means.” (1999)

This was further reinforced by the DCMS’s SocialExclusion Policy for Museums, Galleries and Archives.

There is clearly agreement which runs throughgovernment at every level that museums and galleriesare key elements in the achievement of major policygoals because they can have a direct impact oneducational achievement and help to generatecommunity identity and pride, celebrate cultural andethnic diversity, and develop individual social skills,knowledge, motivation and self-esteem.The CoreGroup accordingly proposes that the followingstatement should express the Council’s first policyobjective for Glasgow Museums:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 1

To establish a socially inclusive and stimulatingMuseums and Galleries service whichaddresses the barriers to access, connects withthe lives of everyone, and reflects the culturaland social diversity of the city.

This policy aligns with the policies and priorities ofthe City Council, the Scottish Executive, the UKDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport, and otherpublic agencies. It also fits with the strategic prioritiesidentified at the Open Space event, the follow-upprogramme of workshops and the People’s Panel.

3CHAPTERAccess: Social Inclusion and Lifelong Learning


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3 3 ACCESS

The key to developing a comprehensive policy forsocial inclusion and lifelong learning is to improveaccess.The ultimate goal is that the city’s Museumsand Galleries should be democratic public spaceswhere all the people of the city and their visitors can,in a safe, comfortable and friendly environment, beempowered to learn about themselves and the worldthrough experiencing the city’s collections. Making thecity’s collections and Museum and Galleries Servicewelcoming and relevant to those facing socialexclusion is a fundamental aim of this Review.

Access policy should cover every point of contactbetween museums and their public.This shouldembrace advertising and other publicity, communityoutreach, the immediate local environment and themuseums themselves and their programme, contentand visitor services.As a priority, the service shoulddevelop policies and strategies for minimising barriersto access which can be:-

• Physical and Sensory

• Social

• Intellectual and Cultural

3 4 PHYSICAL AND SENSORY ACCESS:STANDARDS AND FUTURE PROVISION

Glasgow City Council is committed to full imple-mentation of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995).The Act defines disability as “a physical or mentalimpairment which has a substantial and long-termadverse effect on a person’s ability to carry outnormal day-to-day activities”. Sensory impairmentsare included under the category of “physical” in thisdefinition.A number of important aspects of the Actrelating to access to facilities and services have nowcome into force and will have major consequencesfor Glasgow Museums.

Since October 1999, service providers are obliged totake reasonable steps to change any policies, practicesor procedures which discriminate against disabledpeople. In addition, where physical barriers make itdifficult for disabled people to use a service,reasonable steps have to be taken to provide theservice by an alternative means.

In particular, reasonable steps must be taken toprovide auxiliary aids and services which enabledisabled people to use the museums and galleries.By 2005, the Act requires service providers to takereasonable steps to remove, alter or circumventthose physical barriers into and within museumbuildings which make access unreasonably

difficult for disabled people.

All physical access to, and circulation within buildingsshould allow for people with mobility impairments toenter more easily, with dignity and a minimum of fuss,and at the same points as more mobile visitors.Similar principles should be applied to means ofescape and evacuation procedures.

Standards for Access for disabled people areestablished by the Disability Discrimination Act(1995). Standards for intellectual and cultural accessare not covered by legislation, and vary considerablydepending on the kind of service being provided andto whom. Even the standards set in the DisabilityDiscrimination Act are open to a wide degree ofinterpretation and perceptions of the optimum levelof provision are developing rapidly in tandem withsocietal awareness of the obstacles, opportunities andpossible solutions.The best way forward therefore isto integrate formal processes of consultation withrepresentative groups into the planning of all aspectsof the museum service.This is standard practice nowfor capital projects and periodic access audits arealready taking place to keep up to date on physicaland sensory access.An equivalent process needs tobe devised to ensure continuous improvement inintellectual and cultural access for temporaryexhibitions, events, marketing and educationprogrammes. Ongoing community and user consul-tation helps support closer contacts with localcommunities and priority groups, and developsustainable community use and a sense of ownership.This consultation must lead to real influence by userson the content of museums and their accessibility.

3 5 CURRENT PROVISION: PHYSICALAND SENSORY ACCESS AND ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITHLEARNING DIFFICULTIES

The service’s commitment to the DisabilityDiscrimination Act has led to the installation of lifts inboth the Museum of Transport (1999) andKelvingrove (1998) (a particularly successfulintervention in a Category A listed façade).At presentan internal lift is being installed in Scotland StreetSchool Museum, giving access for disabled peopleabove ground floor for the first time. Similarlymuseums which have been refurbished recently haveincluded physical access consistent with the best-practice level at the time, i.e. St Mungo’s Museum(1993), People’s Palace (1995), and the Gallery ofModern Art (1996).The changes to access werecarried out in consultation with representativeorganisations. The entrance to the Burrell Collectionrequires modification, while Provands Lordship, given

3CHAPTER Access: Social Inclusion and Lifelong Learning


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the nature of the building, poses difficult, but notinsurmountable, challenges.

While significant projects have been undertaken forpeople with sensory impairments, e.g. In Touch withthe Past (which enabled visitors to touch archaeo-logical objects), Out of Sight out of Mind (GulbenkianAward winning exhibition on mental health care inScotland) and Dialogue in the Dark (on theexperience of blindness), there is no systematicapproach to these issues and the provision ofauxiliary aids and services (e.g. audio tours, touchtours, large-print labels, signed tours, services forpeople with Special Educational Needs) is not welldeveloped.The lack of provision for disabled people isreflected in the fact that they comprise only 2% ofvisitors, compared with 11% in the (UK) populationas a whole.A focus group for disabled people hasbeen established to advise the Kelvingrove NewCentury project, and physical and sensory access willbe addressed as a priority issue.

It is proposed that Glasgow Museums in liaison withthe Glasgow Access Panel continue the annualprogramme of audits to look at access arrangementsfor disabled people involving each venue everysecond year and covering all aspects of access.

3 6 SOCIAL ACCESS: STANDARDS ANDFUTURE PROVISION

Access to all the City Council’s museums andgalleries is free, which in 1998/99 equated to aninvestment by the Council of £4.10 per visitor (i.e. the cost of the service divided by the number of visitors).

Free access on its own does not break down barriersto inclusion in museums, but it provides an importantbasis for developing a socially inclusive service.TheCity Council’s policy of free admission for all visitorsto its museums and galleries should be maintained,ensuring that there is no financial barrier in respectof access.

A key element in the social inclusion strategy of themuseum service is the provision of outreach serviceswhich are delivered through the Open Museum,which was founded as a joint pilot project by theDistrict and Regional Councils in April 1990.

An evolving area of work for the Open Museum is tofind new ways in which people can make use ofmuseum resources by empowering communitygroups to put on their own exhibitions using museumobjects.Assuming a successful grant application to theHeritage Lottery Fund, a pilot project will be run inPollok for creating the capacity within the communityto develop a local museum resource.The Open

Museum with the support of Cardonald College willtrain a local panel to programme, theme and managepermanent and rotating displays of museum objectsfrom the City’s collection in a community venue inthe Pollok area. Benefits should include communityempowerment, development of management,curatorial and ICT skills, wider access to the City’scollection, and development of closer links betweenthe Burrell Collection and the Greater Pollok community.

The success of the Glasgow Open Museum suggeststhat any strengthening of its staff resources can onlyassist the Museums service in developing wideraccess and a more socially inclusive service. A closeworking relationship between the Open Museum, theproposed new venue managers, and the Educationand Access officers will be crucial to integratingvenue-based and outreach work.

3 7 SOCIAL ACCESS: CURRENTPROVISION

The City Council’s policy of free admission to itsmuseums and galleries ensures that there is nofinancial barrier in respect of admission.

The £16.92 million Glasgow has budgeted in2000/2001 in providing freely accessible museums is amajor commitment - the largest civic museum servicein the UK - comprising over 40% of all localgovernment expenditure on museums in Scotland.The Victorian inheritance of collections (donated bylocal people) and the magnificent buildings, the civicpride they express, and the local tradition of visitingmuseums, mean that generations of Glaswegians havebrought their children and grandchildren to themuseums and galleries.This tradition partly explainswhy new museums, such as the Burrell Collection(1983) and the Gallery of Modern Art (1996), havebeen successful in increasing the total number ofvisitors, with no displacement from existing facilities.The loyalty and range of frequency of local visitationcombine with the range and quality of the collectionsto produce a unique atmosphere in Glasgow’smuseums, where all sections of society can meet inwhat are clearly civic spaces.Though there are many,especially those who suffer from various forms ofexclusion, who do not feel part of this sense ofbelonging and ownership, the strength of the traditionprovides a solid foundation upon which improve-ments in access, audience development and lifelonglearning can be based.

There are large numbers of people in Glasgow who,for a variety of reasons, feel that museums andgalleries are not for them.An important element indeveloping a socially inclusive service is the use of



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market research and customer feedback as a way ofestablishing precisely which sections of the Glasgowpopulation are under-represented or are notpresently using the service. (This is addressed indetail in paragraph 6.4.3) The research carried out byLowland Research in 1998/99 indicates the followingpercentages and socio-economic profile of Glasgowresidents who visit the city’s museums and galleries:

Museums and Galleries Socio-Economic Profile

A, B, C1 C2, D, E

Museum of Transport 48% 52%

People’s Palace 50% 50%

Kelvingrove 58% 42%

St Mungo’s 57% 43%

Gallery of Modern Art 58% 42%

Scotland Street School 61% 39%

The Burrell 60% 40%

Overall 58% 42%

While people within the C2, D and E categories donot necessarily live in poverty or deprivation, theyare generally less well off, and, nationally, tend not tovisit museums.The overall figure of 42% visitors fromC2, D and E categories represents a very significantvisitation level within this group, and is amongst thehighest in the UK for major museums, but it is still anunder-representation of C2, D and E citizens, whocomprise 67% of the city’s population, and an over-representation of A, B and C1 categories, whocomprise 33%.While many people from all sectionsof society may decide not to visit museums, it is areasonable assumption that the under-representationamongst C2, D and E categories is due to theirexclusion from social, economic and culturalopportunities, rather than choice, and the serviceneeds to be developed in order to make it accessibleto all the citizens of Glasgow.A good recent exampleof what can be done is the Tiger exhibition in theBurrell Collection, designed to make that venue more accessible to local people and to a family audience.

3 8 GLASGOW OPEN MUSEUM

During the nineties the Open Museum established areputation as one of the exemplars of museum accessin the UK. Its primary role has been to overcomephysical and social barriers to accessing collections inestablished museums by taking objects out into non-

museum community venues.This involves organisingover 1,000 loans per year and the management ofover 1200 objects in 200 different community venues.Resources include reminiscence and handling kitscovering topics which range from everyday life toScottish archaeology to exotic insects; tabletop andtouring exhibitions; multimedia interactives; and ateam of seven staff, comprising curators, designtechnicians and outreach assistants.

The Open Museum is acknowledged nationally andinternationally as an example of Best Practice andwon the Gulbenkian Best Community Work by aMuseum award in 1997. It has radically improvedmuseum practice in some areas by serving as avehicle for community feedback and for reaching outto new audiences through established communitynetworks; but the kind of thinking it embodies hasnot been adequately generalised throughout the service.

3 9 SOCIAL ACCESS:WHAT COULD BEDONE BETTER WITHIN EXISTINGRESOURCES

It is recommended that the Council continues thework of the Glasgow Open Museum as a key aspectof Glasgow Museums’ commitment to social inclusionand access. It is also proposed to establish outreachand local community liaison as a core priority foreach museum and gallery venue.

In developing its commitment to social inclusion, it isproposed to strengthen Glasgow’s Open MuseumService as a 7-day-a-week service with the addition ofthree members of staff.The appointment of 7Education and Access Officers would provide a majoropportunity to integrate Outreach (museum servicesdelivered outside the city centre in local venues) andInreach (changing displays and other services in citycentre venues so that they are genuinely welcomingand relevant to new visitors, especially from excludedgroups). Making these links would make the city’smajor venues accessible to people who have aninterest in museums but who may feel, for a varietyof reasons, that the city centre venues are“not for them”.

One of the issues identified by the People’s Panel isthe lack of a co-ordinated and affordable transportsystem.This is a particular concern for those peoplein peripheral areas who find that public transport canbe complicated and expensive, especially for familieswith children.The City Council’s powers to doanything about public transport routes and prices arenow severely limited by legislation and the statutoryfunctions of the Strathclyde PTE. But the Councilcould encourage the city’s transport operators to



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promote Glasgow Museums through betteradvertising and destination maps, and Land Servicescould review signposting to Glasgow’s museums andgalleries. In addition, Glasgow Museums could reviewopportunities, in liaison with Building Services and theEducation Service, for the better use of the CityCouncil’s own transport resources to facilitate accessfor schools and local community organisations.

Another issue raised by the People’s Panel is the realcost of visiting museums and galleries in respect bothof transport costs and of catering and retail costsonce at the venue.This is particularly an issue forfamilies on low incomes and benefits.The Tigerexhibition at the Burrell Collection included anexperiment in providing a cheaper, more family-friendly menu in the café, which it is hoped willprovide a basis for future provision. Again, theCouncil’s power is limited, but Glasgow Museumscould establish and monitor access targets as part ofa three-year programme for audience development ateach of the city’s museums and galleries.

3 10 SOCIAL ACCESS:WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED WITH ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The largest and highest priority project beingundertaken by the museum service is the KelvingroveNew Century Project.This has been planned with theoverall aim of creating a visitor-centred museum, andextensive consultation has taken place.This has included:

• Community Advisory Panel

• Education Advisory Panel

• Disability Advisory Panel

One major development being planned as part ofPhase II of the Kelvingrove project is theestablishment of a Heritage Collections Centre, toallow public access to the city’s collection in storeand conservation. Further improvements in theprovision of children and family visitor services willhave to be achieved through further capitaldevelopments for the city’s museums and galleries.

3 11 INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURALACCESS: STANDARDS AND FUTUREPROVISION

The City Council is committed to nurturing a vibrantmulti-cultural city, a learning city. For GlasgowMuseums to contribute to this, they should enablevisitors to explore complex and challenging ideas.This means that the language of all signage, as well asthe display and interpretation of collections, need to

reflect the intellectual and cultural diversity ofpotential audiences. It should be noted that in theGreater Glasgow area, 20% of the population sufferliteracy difficulties and this needs to be consideredwhen planning how collections are interpreted.Museums, rather than being thought of as full ofobjects with some labels, can be seen as full of visualclues to the meaning of the written texts, and socapable of making a contribution to improvingliteracy for both children and adults.

Glasgow Museums need to engage people fromdifferent cultural backgrounds and reflect thediversity of the city. Glasgow’s minority ethnicpopulation is projected to increase from 3.5% to 5%over the next 10 years. At present ethnic minorityvisitors comprise only 2% of visitors. As it isestimated that children from ethnic minorities couldmake up more than 9% of Glasgow’s child populationby 2008, improving provision is essential to meet thecity’s educational and inclusion objectives.Thesestatistics use a narrow definition of ethnic minorityand do not include, for example, people of English,Irish and other European descent, who comprisemore than one third of the population. Furthermorethe time (which never was) when everyone wasassumed to know the basics of classical mythology,Christian imagery and the outline of world andBritish history is gone.

It is therefore important to devise a layeredcommunication strategy which provides introductoryaccess to the meanings of the objects on display, aswell as continuing to provide services forknowledgeable visitors. In short, the museums and artgalleries should not perpetuate a one-voice inter-pretation of art, history and natural history reflectingonly the culture in which they originated.

The Core Group accordingly recommends thefollowing as policy objective number two:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 2

To improve intellectual and cultural access, theCouncil should devise procedures to ensurethe City’s collections, acquisitions policy,exhibition programme and interpretationpractice all reflect the cultural and socialdiversity of the city.

This policy aligns with the policies and practices ofGlasgow City Council, the Scottish Executive and theUK Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It alsofits with the views of the Council’s Cultural DiversityForum and is supported by Market Research.

3



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3 12 INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURALACCESS: CURRENT PROVISION

As in other areas, the more recently created orrefurbished facilities go further towards meeting thecultural and intellectual access needs of Glasgow’scitizens than the older displays.The commitment tomake complex meanings widely accessible is bestillustrated in St Mungo’s Museum, where difficult ideasare addressed without being oversimplified, andwhere key labels are translated into communitylanguages.The service has carried out majorexhibitions to promote tolerance and mutualunderstanding, including the Salaam Festival in 1997,which was the largest celebration of Islamic Art andculture in the UK for 25 years.While in generalcelebratory, both temporary and long-term displayshave an important role in raising difficult issues: e.g.those surrounding the use of the veil in Islamicsocieties were raised in a temporary exhibition in StMungo’s Museum, while sectarian divisions within theethnic majority have been acknowledged in thedisplays in St Mungo’s Museum and the People’s Palace.

3 13 INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURALACCESS:WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER WITHIN EXISTING RESOURCES

Glasgow Museums could make more use ofcommunity languages in selected promotional andinterpretative materials to reflect the city’s culturaldiversity, as piloted in St Mungo’s Museum.

One of the two key issues raised by the People’sPanel was the level of services for young people.Younger people (of all backgrounds) have a frame ofcultural reference which relates more to global mediathan to traditional high culture, and a coherentstrategy must be devised to ensure that they aregiven access to their heritage. Suggestions from thePeople’s Panel included: improved school curriculumlinks; child- and family-centred facilities; after-schoolyouth programmes; more involvement and consul-tation with young people; opportunities for youngpeople to serve as peer guides; in conjunction withthe transport network in Glasgow, better advertisingand map-guiding to Glasgow’s museums and galleries.In response to these suggestions, Glasgow Museumsshould develop a more focused programme ofchildren’s and young people’s after-school and holidayactivities within the City’s museums and galleries. Itshould also create new Education and Access poststo ensure that the core service is shaped towards asocial inclusion and lifelong learning agenda.

An essential feature of a developed access policy (andof Best Value practice) is consultation with both usersof the service and potential new audiences.This iscrucial to developing a better understanding ofbarriers to access, and the needs of different clientgroups, and to establishing relevant and sociallyinclusive services. It should be an integral part of theoverall planning and monitoring process, enablingmore effective targeting of resources to need, and thedevelopment of sustainable community use and asense of ownership. In order to achieve this, GlasgowMuseums should establish a programme of consul-tation with users and non-users, involving marketresearch, improved customer complaints andcomments systems, and use of advisory groups.

The Core Group recommends that GlasgowMuseums should examine how far these recom-mendations can be implemented through theredeployment of existing resources.

3 14 LEARNING:THE POLICYFRAMEWORK

The City Council has established a key objective ofimproving educational attainment in the city and iscommitted to promoting lifelong learning through anumber of initiatives.Through a Learning Alliance,involving Glasgow Development Agency, GlasgowTelecolleges Network and the City Council, Glasgowaims to become a Learning City and is developing astrategy for Community Learning which is defined as:

“any community-based learning activity which involvesa partnership approach, is driven by learner needsand provides benefits to individuals, communitiesand organisations. Community learning shouldpromote social inclusion through all aspects oflearning, formal or otherwise.”

The vision of the Learning Alliance is of a Glasgowwhere “all learning is valued and where communitylearning is recognised as a powerful agent of changeand growth for individuals, groups and communities.”

It is important that the key role of Glasgow’smuseums and galleries as public learning centres isfully recognised in the City’s emerging CommunityLearning Plan.

One of the priority issues raised at the Open Spaceevent and discussed in detail at a follow-up workshopwas the need for a long-term commitment towardsdeveloping, supporting and sustaining the role ofmuseums and galleries in enhancing lifelong learningand education.This was supported by the People’sPanel which identified as one of its top priorities theneed to support actively museums and galleries aslearning centres and develop them as places of



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understanding between different communities anddifferent cultures.

At a national level the main policy initiatives foreducation and lifelong learning include the NationalGrid for Learning and the development of LearningCentres to be based in existing community facilitiessuch as museums and public libraries.The SocialInclusion Strategy also sets out a programme of workwhich includes the need to widen participation in,and demand for, lifelong learning.

At a UK level the Department of Culture, Media andSport (DCMS) publication “A Common Wealth -Museums in the Learning Age” states that:-

“Museums and Galleries offer a unique kind oflearning, based on first-hand experience of authenticobjects, works of art and other resources in a publicand social environment.They can support culturalliteracy for individuals and cultural development forcommunities. [...] They can provide ethicalleadership, and help children and adults to acquireskills of learning through cultural resources.Museums and Galleries have a crucial role as publiclearning centres in fostering the creative skills ofchildren and adults.”

This represents a major change in the cultural aims ofmuseums and galleries, representing a move from adidactic approach related to teaching people specificcontent or providing purely aesthetic experiences, toone which responds to the whole person, and isbased on the potential of each visitor for growth inhim/herself, in relation to others and to the widercommunity. It is very much in keeping with theVictorian ideals of those who established themuseums, and gives rise to the proposal for the thirdpolicy objective for Glasgow Museums and Galleries:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 3

To reinforce the role of Glasgow Museums andGalleries as an agent for social change byenhancing their role as a force for learning in the City.

This policy aligns with the policies and priorities ofGlasgow City Council and other Learning Alliancepartners, the Scottish Executive and the UKDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport. It also fitswith the strategic priorities identified at the OpenSpace event and the People’s Panel.

3 15 LEARNING: STANDARDS ANDFUTURE PROVISION

Glasgow Museums provide novel and unique learningenvironments with their wide range of original art,

natural and historical objects and can provide the following:-

• Inspirational experiences to motivate learning

• Experiences for school children which can beshared with parents/carers at subsequent visits

• Hands-on and visual experiences which stimulatechildren who may not be confident academically

• Educational resources covering the whole range ofthe curriculum, not just in terms of exhibitions, butalso electronic and paper publications, which cansupport learning using original materials in the collections

• Stimulating informal learning environments forfamily and adult learners and those at risk of social disadvantage.

Evaluating learning, especially in informal settings, isextremely difficult and time consuming, and there areno agreed standards or methods.To ensure quality isbeing achieved it will therefore be necessary toestablish learning objectives and evaluation methodsfor selected projects and aspects of the service. Usinga model derived from the Children’s Museum,Athens,possible learning objectives could be set out as follows:-

i) The IndividualSelf-awareness, self-esteem, development ofpersonal skills, confidence building, self-expression,self-fulfilment, self-identity

ii) Interpersonal relationshipsCommunication, acknowledging and understandingof others’ viewpoints, co-operation, negotiation,sharing feelings, social bonds, affirmation of self-image

iii) The CommunityActive participation, acceptance and rejoicing inthe richness of difference, networking, positivegroup identification.

It is important that the role of its museums andgalleries as public learning centres and their potentialto contribute to Glasgow’s Learning Network is builtinto the museums’ target setting and evaluation.

3 16 LEARNING: CURRENT PROVISION

Recent long-term displays have been designed with astrong learning agenda, for both formal and informallearning, at St Mungo’s, the People’s Palace andScotland Street School Museum.The development oftemporary exhibitions and programmes of events andactivities targeted at specific groups has, however,been greatly hampered by the reduction in curatorialand design staff, and by the drastic reduction of



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Museum Education Service staff from 14 to 1.Thework of venue-based teams and a radical rethink ofthe Museum Education Service have enabled someprovision to continue, but it is not on a sufficientscale, or systematic enough, to have a significant impact.

3 17 LEARNING: COMMITTEDIMPROVEMENTS

The Kelvingrove New Century Project modernisationstrategy is based on enhancing the museum’s qualitiesas an environment which makes learning easy andexciting.The “Discovery Centre” displays are specif-ically geared to children and young people learningabout themselves and the city, country and world inwhich they live.The linking of the proposed newdisplays and other resources (e.g. materials preparedfor people with learning difficulties) to the schools,especially through the schools Intranet, will provide amajor bespoke resource for teachers and students.The development of the basement at Kelvingrove willprovide classrooms and ICT learning resources forschools and other visiting groups to support thedevelopment of Kelvingrove as a public learning centre.

3 18 LEARNING:WHAT COULD BE DONEBETTER WITHIN EXISTINGRESOURCES

The staffing complement proposed for the service bymanagement calls for an increase in staff to supportEducation and Access from the single post withinEducation Services to a team of eight posts, includingseven Education and Access officers based within theservice’s principal venues.These posts will also have acity-wide responsibility for working with particulargroups such as elderly people, children in care,minority ethnic groups and young people at risk, inconjunction with Social Work Services and other careagencies. Each venue will, in addition to working withschools and community organisations, focus on adifferent mix of target groups.

Furthermore it is proposed that the role of a numberof museum assistant posts should be developed into“Learning Assistants” to reflect greater emphasis onthe learning experience of the visiting public andmeeting the particular needs of group visits, includingschools.This will, of course, be supported byappropriate training programmes for staff.

In addition to the staffing improvements, three othermeasures could be undertaken with existingresources: the development of display, ICT, curriculumand classroom resources; partnership working with

Education Services and the City’s colleges and univer-sities; and the development of procedures to ensurethat the venue-based teams, the Education and Accessofficers and the Open Museum work closely togetherand with Education and Social Work Services andother educational and care organisations in the city.New procedures are required so that priorities willbe agreed for each venue in respect of programmesand desired outcomes.

3 19 WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED WITHADDITIONAL RESOURCES

To strengthen the service’s commitment to educationand lifelong learning would require four additionaldedicated posts, including a dedicated Education ICTResource Manager. In addition, all future GlasgowMuseums projects should prioritise, along with accessrequirements, the creation of relevant and excitinglearning environments as well as classroom and ICTlearning facilities.The achievement of this will dependon the availability of new capital resources. Forexample, one project identified by this Review is thedevelopment of a Visual Art Learning Centre andenhanced educational classroom space at the Galleryof Modern Art (GoMA) as part of the proposedcapital improvements to develop GoMA’s role as apublic learning centre.



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4 1 INTRODUCTION

Glasgow’s museum and art gallery collections reflectthe unique and invaluable artistic, historical andscientific heritage of the city, and its place in Scottishand world history.They are a major cultural resourcefor the City and for Scotland.The City’s museumshold the highest quality and most wide-rangingcollection of art, history, technology and naturalhistory of any non-national museum in the UK.Substantial areas of the collection are of national andinternational importance, and as a whole itconstitutes “one of the greatest civic collections inEurope”, according to Neil McGregor, Director of theNational Gallery.

The two largest collections held in Glasgow arethose of the City Council and those of GlasgowUniversity, which has internationally importantcollections in a number of areas.The Hunterian ArtGallery excels in works by James McNeill Whistler,Charles Rennie Mackintosh, European prints from the15th to 20th centuries, and European and Scottishpaintings from the 16th to the 20th centuries.TheHunterian Museum (the oldest public museum inScotland) has international-quality collections ofgeology, archaeology, coins, scientific instruments andethnography. The university also has specialistmuseums devoted to Zoology,Anatomy and the workof Lord Kelvin.

Other significant collections in Glasgow include thoseof the National Trust (especially in the TenementHouse), Strathclyde University (Scottish paintingsfrom the 18th to the 20th centuries, scientificinstruments of the 18th and 19th centuries), GlasgowSchool of Art (works by Charles Rennie Mackintoshand others of the Glasgow school), CaledonianUniversity (Social Work collection in theHeatherbank Museum) and the Royal HighlandFusiliers Regimental Museum.The Clyde MaritimeTrust owns the largest industrial artefact in Glasgow,the 19th century Clyde-built sailing ship, Glenlee,which is recognised as part of the UK CoreCollection of Historic Ships. It is the only exampleafloat in the UK of a sailing bulk cargo vessel, and one of only five such Clyde-built ships still afloat in the world.

The City Council rightly points to the national signi-ficance of its own collections, so it is entitled, andperhaps even duty-bound, to look for partnershipworking with independent and municipal collectionselsewhere in the region.The most significant of theseare Summerlee Industrial Museum (NorthLanarkshire), New Lanark (South Lanarkshire), BiggarMuseums (South Lanarkshire), Paisley Museum andArt Gallery (Renfrewshire), and the Scottish MaritimeMuseum (with collections in Irvine, Dumbarton and

Braehead). Just as access to the City Council’scollections is important to all the residents of theregion, and for the implementation of national policieson social inclusion and lifelong learning, so is itimportant to the citizens of Glasgow that they shouldenjoy access to all the rich resources of the region,and that access should be understood throughout theregion in the broad sense discussed in Chapter 3.

4 2 GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL’SCOLLECTIONS

4 2 1 ART

Unlike other municipal art collections, GlasgowMuseums are almost unique in having a fine OldMaster collection of oil paintings. Many of these werepart of the Archibald McLellan Bequest of pictureswhich came to the city in 1854 and were thefoundation of the collection.Among the treasures hebequeathed were “The Adulteress brought beforeChrist” attributed to Giorgione, which reputedlyonce belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden,Bernard van Orley’s “The Virgin and Child by aFountain” and the Master of Moulins’ “St Maurice orSt Victor with a Donor”. He also bequeathed someimportant 17th century Dutch paintings which werestrengthened by later bequests, most notably ofRembrandt’s “Man in Armour” and “Carcass of anOx”.The art collection is also strong in French 19thand early 20th century painting. All the majormovements are represented - Realism, Impressionism,Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism - withworks by Millet, Corot, Courbet, Monet, Pissarro,Sisley,Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, Derain, Picassoand Braque.This part of the collection is extremelypopular with the public.

The collection of British paintings is dominated byworks of Scottish artists.There are fine represent-ative examples of all the leading artists from the 18thcentury onwards - portraits by Raeburn and Ramsay;landscapes by Knox, Nasmyth and McCulloch;Victorian narrative paintings by Faed, Orchardson andPettie; and the internationally acclaimed GlasgowBoys and Scottish Colourists.There are also keyexamples by their English contemporaries such asTurner, Constable and the Pre-Raphaelites, and animportant portrait by Whistler of the Scottish writerThomas Carlyle.

In addition to the oil paintings, Glasgow has over2,000 watercolours and drawings and over 12,000prints.The British School is by far the largest holding,with Scottish etching being a key feature: the big four,Bone, Strang, Cameron and McBey, are all well

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represented. Nearly all these works are held in storeand are inaccessible to the general public.

The Decorative Arts Collection has some nationallyimportant European sections such as ItalianRenaissance maiolica, 16th century Venetian glass,Spanish glass from the 16th to the 19th centuries,British costume from c.1760 to the present, andScottish metalwork from the late 17th to the mid-19th century. However, its main strength lies in itsmaterial of international significance relating toCharles Rennie Mackintosh and “ The Glasgow Style”.

4 2 2 THE BURRELL COLLECTION

The Collection comprises internationally importantindividual collections.The Medieval art collectionincludes polychrome wood sculpture, tapestries,alabasters, stained glass and English oak.Among theEuropean paintings are masterworks by Cranach andBellini; an important collection of works by theHague School artists, including Mauve, Jacob andMatthijs Maris; and a major holding of works by 19thcentury French artists including Millet (9), Daumier(18), Courbet (6), Boudin (11), Manet (9) and Degas (22), as well as works by Sisley, Pissarro, Renoirand Cézanne. Further important areas are the art ofAncient China, Egypt, Greece and Rome; Near- andMiddle-Eastern textiles and ceramics; and modernsculpture, including works by Epstein and Rodin.

4 2 3 ARCHAEOLOGY

Ancient Civilisations are represented in the collectionin three main areas - Egyptian material from allperiods, Cypriot pottery from the Bronze Age, andterracottas from Lipari.

Glasgow’s Scottish archaeology collection focuses onlife in the west of Scotland from the first settlersc.8,000 years ago up to the early medieval period. Itis particularly strong in Bronze Age material and inobjects from the post-Roman period, with asignificant holding of crannog material.The collectionof objects associated with the Vikings is small butvery significant, in particular a rare Viking carved stone.

4 2 4 SCOTTISH HISTORY

Rural and urban life in the west of Scotland is wellrepresented, and because of Glasgow’s strong linkswith the Western Highlands and Islands, a substantialcollection of everyday-life material has beenaccumulated. Objects from St Kilda, until itsevacuation in 1930 the remotest inhabited island in

the British Isles, include snares for catching sea-birds- the St Kildan staple diet - and the oldest spinning wheel on the island at the

time of the evacuation.

4 2 5 GLASGOW AND LABOUR HISTORY

Material related to the social, economic, political andreligious life of the city of Glasgow is a substantialholding. Objects associated with the Trade UnionMovement and Women’s Suffrage are of nationalimportance, while the civic life of the city, its religiousconvictions, its links with the Empire and popularculture are also included.Almost every aspect ofpeople’s life in the city, whether at home, at work orat leisure, is represented.

4 2 6 ARMS AND ARMOUR

The arms and armour collection, the core of whichwas donated by RL Scott in 1939, is the bestcollection in the country after that of the RoyalArmouries.The Gothic Milanese field armour ofabout 1450 is probably the earliest and mostcomplete plate armour in the world and theGreenwich armour for man and horse, originallyowned by the Earl of Pembroke, is the only exampleof its type to survive.These are only two of thetreasures from this internationally significant collection.

Japanese material is particularly strong in the Asiancollections, including Samurai arms and armour, and awealth of domestic items given by the Japanesegovernment in 1878 in exchange for some paintings.South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka)is also well represented, especially by items from theIndian courts which came into the city’s possession atthe time of the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888.

4 2 7 NATURAL HISTORY

Glasgow Museums hold the premier natural historycollections relating to the past and present of thewest of Scotland.The natural world is represented byvast collections, including 600,000 insects, 100,000fossils, 13,000 bird skins, 6,000 eggs, 20,000herbarium specimens and examples of almost everyspecies found in Scotland. Many specimens date fromthe early 19th century and have a major role in thestudies of pollution and DNA.

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4 2 8 TRANSPORT AND TECHNOLOGY

Representing Glasgow’s industrial past, the strengthsare in transport, engineering, domestic and officetechnology.The oldest surviving bicycle in the worldis complemented by a replica of the first car and thebest collection anywhere of Scottish-built vehicles.The city’s world-renowned achievement inshipbuilding is represented by one of the world’smajor collections of ship models (over 800). Glasgowwas lauded as locomotive builder to the world, andimportant local engines are displayed, alongside aunique collection of trams which were such a featureof Scottish urban life up to the early 1960s.

4 2 9 CULTURES OF THE WORLD

Glasgow’s links with the rest of the world are wellrepresented. It has major holdings of African objects,the most important figure carving being the ancestralscreen from the Kalabari people of the Niger Riverdelta in Nigeria. Dating from the late 19th century, itis the largest of only 11 examples surviving in theworld. Of Glasgow’s two Benin bronze portraitheads, one is among the largest known anywhere anddates from the 19th century.The Massie-Taylorcollection of Mende material from Sierra Leone,collected in the 1950s, includes many fine Sowiemasks and Minsereh figures.

Of particular note is the outstanding collection ofobjects from the Torres Straits Islands in the Pacific.These came mainly from the collection of theGlaswegian ship engineer Robert Bruce who livedand taught there. His bequest in 1889 of 150 objectsformed one of the most important collections in theworld and included masks, musical instruments andother ceremonial material.A small but significantgroup of objects relates to the Maori tribes of NewZealand and includes a rare free-standing figure withhuman hair.

Given the quality, range and scope of thesecollections, the Council’s objectives should be toachieve a systematic overview of all collections in thecity, and a strategic approach to their documentation,preservation and development.

4 3 CARE,AUDIT,ACCESS AND STORAGE

4 3 1 POLICY FRAMEWORK

Glasgow City Council and national audit regulationsrequire Glasgow Museums to have a complete list ofevery object in the collection, and a record of itslocation. Glasgow is committed to meeting UKstandards for the care of collections and the

management of related information, set down in theMuseum Registration Scheme.There is, however, noScottish national policy for the care and managementof collections not held by National Museums andGalleries. In particular there is no official process forassessing which collections are of nationalimportance, unlike in England, where the DesignationScheme makes that judgement, and links it directly toa Designated Collections Challenge Fund.TheNational Strategy for Museums issued by the ScottishMuseums Council (SMC) in 1999 identified a need fora National Audit of collections and associatedservices as a key priority.The SMC has nowestablished a National Audit Project, which isaddressing, amongst other questions, the key issues of“National Significance” and Database compatibility(i.e. ensuring that when museums put data on theircomputing systems about their collections, they useconsistent terminology so that eventually they will allbe accessible).

The Open Space Workshop on Collections Care andManagement recommended collating a list of whatcollections exist in the city as the bedrock of anycity-wide strategy, not just for care and documenta-tion, but for future collecting.This would contributeto the National Strategy for Museums’ recommendednational audit of collections.The workshop revealedmany concerns that are shared between the CityCouncil and other organisations responsible forcollections in the city, as well as an enthusiasm forsharing resources and partnership projects.

The approach of the National Strategy was alsoconfirmed in the workshop’s agreement thatopportunities provided by information technology forsharing information between institutions have thepotential to add value to existing work. Research andmaking connections will be greatly facilitated for staffand public alike.Tackling the issues of data compati-bility was also agreed to be a priority.

The traditional museum practice of storingcollections in the basements and back rooms ofbuildings which house displays and visitor services hasresulted in the dispersal and fragmentation of storageand related information. The best-practice strategicsolution to this is to centralise the vast majority ofthe objects in one location, and, as part of theprocess of moving, to inventory the objects.This isnow recognised as best practice and similar projectshave been undertaken by the National Museum ofScotland and the London Museum of Transport. Sucha central facility is also pivotal to the proposals forKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum as thecollections in store there must be decanted to makeway for new display galleries.

In order to achieve the minimum standards set out



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by the Museums and Galleries CommissionRegistration Scheme, and the emerging goals of theScottish National Strategy for Museums, GlasgowMuseums staff will need to take a lead in carrying outan inventory and condition survey of all thecollections in Glasgow, in close co-operation with theSMC National Audit.This will require setting uppractical partnerships within Glasgow and the rest ofScotland to maximise use of resources for care, auditand access to collections, on the basis of commongoals for usage, storage and care of collections.Thepartnerships should establish and maintain commondocumentation and cataloguing standards and developelectronic access for the public and between organ-isations to information relating to the collections.Partnership amongst all organisations with collectionsis clearly the way to achieve Best Value in themanagement of the city’s material culture inheritance;the alternative is for each museum service to seekself-sufficiency, which will lead to unnecessaryduplication and increases the risk of museums in thecity being unable to maintain Museum Registrationstandards. At the Open Space Day and thesubsequent Workshop on Care and Management ofCollections, there was a consensus that the scale andcentrality of Glasgow Museums put them in a uniqueposition to foster these partnerships.

The Core Group proposes that the emerging policyframework for museums, and the clear consensus infavour of a partnership approach, justifies theadoption of the following policy objectives:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 4

To improve the care, audit and access ofGlasgow’s collections by:-

• Strengthening staff expertise in conservationand curatorial knowledge-base relating tocollections

• Identifying and establishing partnerships

• Improving public and staff access tocollections and information about collections

• Providing a central accessible storage facility(Heritage Collections Centre).

POLICY OBJECTIVE 5

Glasgow Museums should offer a lead indeveloping practical partnerships to maximisethe efficient use of resources, to shareexperience, and to develop common datastandards and databases for collections in thecity and the West of Scotland.

4 3 2 STANDARDS AND FUTUREPROVISION

There is no national optimum standard for the careof, and information management for, such a high-quality, diverse and substantial collection. Registrationprovides a minimum rather than an ideal standard,and Glasgow should be aiming to exceed rather thanmerely meet its requirements. Comparison withmuseums on a similar scale suggests that to ensurethe long-term survival of the collection and theprovision of access to the objects and relatedinformation, Glasgow should be spending about twiceas much as it currently does on these functions.Adetailed comparison of Glasgow’s Collections withthose of the National Museums and Galleries onMerseyside appears in Chapter 10. The staffingcomparison is as follows:

Liverpool Glasgow

Conservators and 40 13Conservation Technicians

Amongst national museums and galleries funded bythe UK DCMS in England, the percentage of totalexpenditure devoted to conservation and collectionmanagement functions was as follows:

Activity DCMS-Funded GlasgowNational Museums Museums

Conservation 4.57% 2.8%

Collection 3.08% 1.7%Documentation

Information Systems 3.01% 0.4%Management

Collections Storage 2.40% 1.0%

Loans 0.55% 0.4%

Total 13.61% 6.3%

If Glasgow spent a similar proportion of its budgeton collections, care and management as thesemuseums, it would involve more than doubling theamount from approximately £725,000 to £1,565,000.Given the constraints on City Council budgets, a netincrease is very difficult to envisage. Given thefunding tied up in simply keeping buildings open, andthe priority to be given to public programme andsocial inclusion objectives, diverting funds within the



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museums budget on this scale is also very difficult toenvisage even with the most radical restructuring.Making the case for national assistance with thelong-term care of the collection, as a central part ofScotland’s heritage, has to be a priority for the City Council.

Funding at this level would enable Glasgow Museumsto carry out Policy Objective 5 and to convene aCare and Management of Collections Forum for theWest of Scotland and facilitate the development of ashared agenda designed to:-

• Share resources

• Make computerised databases compatible

• Share expertise and best practice.

4 4 CURRENT PROVISION

4 4 1 PARTNERSHIP WORKING IN THECITY AND REGION

There is considerable, and increasing, informal co-operation between organisations which holdcollections in the city, but there is no systematic orstrategic system of working together. In developing itspolicies for its own collections, the City Councilshould always consider how its decisions will affectthe work of independent museums, galleries andcollections in the city and, indeed, the region.

4 4 2 PREVENTIVE AND ACTIVECONSERVATION: EXPERTISE ANDSTAFFING LEVELS

Prior to the cuts of 1996/98, staffing levels within theconservation section allowed for object treatments(active conservation) and preventive conservation tobe carried out in-house.The budget cuts and thecorresponding reduction in posts forced a change inemphasis, prioritising preventive conservation.This“fall-back” position ensures a minimum standard forthe care of the collection, though it also reflects anew national change in policy led by the Museumsand Galleries Commission and Scottish MuseumsCouncil, which aimed to take a more strategicapproach to collections care.

This new policy encouraged museums and galleries totake a broad look at the needs of the wholecollection. It is based on the pragmatic premise thatthe key to the long-term preservation of the entire

collection is the conditions in which it is stored anddisplayed. Preventing deterioration by improvingdisplay and storage conditions is the most effectiveuse for conservation resources when resources arelimited.At best this keeps the stable parts of thecollection in stasis, but unstable objects will continueto deteriorate. It does not result in an improvementin object stability, or in display condition, and doesnothing to improve access to collections. Under thecurrent staffing arrangements, conservation workrequired for object stabilisation, the rotation ofdisplays, lending or touring collections, or mountingof new exhibitions is out-sourced subject toavailability of a contractor.

The Museums section has a revenue budget of£120,000 per annum to cover all collections care anddocumentation costs.This includes:-

• Statistical surveys of the conditions of objects

• Storage improvements

• Freelance staff to inventory specialist areas of the collection

• Minimum treatment of objects which are in dangerof deterioration

• Minimum treatment of objects for display and loan(some costs recovered).

Substantial progress has been made with preventiveconservation projects, but the pressures of providinga service to exhibitions, loans, and planning for majorprojects such as the Kelvingrove New CenturyProject, have meant that a Preventive ConservationStrategy has proved difficult to implement.Theassumption that time for preventive projects wouldbe created by out-sourcing remedial conservationwork has proved largely impractical because of thevery small number of conservators in themarketplace.The use of external conservators alsomeans that a great deal of time is spent by highlyskilled staff administering procurement and contractprocedures, and that knowledge about the collectionsis not being accumulated as a result of the work.Thenet result is that the Museums are experiencingconsiderable difficulty in achieving the targetssubmitted as part of the Registration process.

4 4 3 DOCUMENTATION

The collections have been built up over the past 150years, with very partial documentation of manyholdings.There is 100 years’ worth of documentationbacklog which will take about 20 years on currentresources to resolve.These problems have been



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compounded historically by:-

• inconsistent methods of documentation

• lack of documentation pertaining to legaltransactions

• documentation separated from the collections

• lack of procedures and time to accession individualitems fully

• deterioration of labelling on many artefacts.

In short the documentation, the collection and itslegal status have to be tied up together. At present itis very difficult to provide public access toinformation about the collection, or to meet audit requirements.

Documentation has been progressed however:

• 320,000 records have been entered onto 4computer databases

• 85,000 objects have been inventoried, their identityand location verified.

4 4 4 STORAGE

Storage space for the collection has been a problemfor generations, and the result is that objects arestored wherever space could be found withinmuseum buildings or leased spaces. Not all of theseare suitable for the storage of the collections for avariety of reasons, many of which were identifiedthrough recent Scottish Museums Council, Healthand Safety and Environmental and Pest Control reports.

Recent attempts to rationalise storage facilitated bythe termination of leases at other sites and closure ofmuseums buildings within the city led to the leasingof a large industrial space at Maryhill.This has beenconverted into a store for a large number of objects,chiefly furniture, technology and social history. It alsoaccommodates the workshop for the MackintoshTearooms.The rental is £60,000 per annum and isdue for renewal in 2005. Although the Maryhill storerepresents a significant improvement, it does notenable Glasgow Museums to meet their basiccollections storage requirements.The Museums stillhave their collection stored in over 140 spaces in 4main sites, with many rooms inaccessible because ofthe density of storage.

4 5 COMMITTED IMPROVEMENTS

The City Council has agreed to fund a new computersystem capable of managing the information relatingto the 1.2 million objects in the collection, in a way

which is accessible and flexible enough to meet theneeds of a wide range of users.As part of the systemfor renewal of Registration, targets have beenestablished for inventory of the collection. This isbeing integrated with the task of moving around140,000 objects from Kelvingrove during therefurbishment and involves identifying each objectindividually before moving it to a defined place in anew store so that it can be located again.

4 6 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTERWITHIN EXISTING RESOURCES

The current approach to collections care andmanagement is correct, and in line with city andnational strategies, so it is very difficult to identifyareas for the improvement of performance withinexisting resources.The pressures of sustaining thecare and maintenance of the collection at currentlevels of public service, and the current capitalprojects and exhibition touring commitments, meanthat the key issue for staff involved is not deploymentbut the fact that resources are substantially over-stretched.

Existing commitments to preventive conservation andinventory projects are difficult to meet, and theleadership role set out in Policy Objective 5 would beimpossible within existing resources.

4 7 WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED BY REALLOCATING EXISTINGRESOURCES

In order to meet the standards and targets set out inRegistration Phase II, considerable additional staffingresources are required.The minimum increaseidentified to progress this is a team comprising 4Curatorial and 4 Conservation posts, and aPublications and Copyright Officer. This would alsoenable the museums to undertake in a limited waysome of the leadership roles set out in PolicyObjective 5.The creation of a Research and Projectssection with responsibility for curatorial informationabout the collection and the creation of newcuratorial posts would contribute to the efficiency ofthe inventory and cataloguing processes. Even withthis reallocation, a complete audit of collections willtake at least 15 to 20 years to achieve. This is atheoretical calculation based on current progress. Inpractice it is very difficult to sustain a project oversuch a long period of time, and it would mean thatGlasgow Museums would continue not to meet auditrequirements for the duration.



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Full achievement of city-wide and regional strategicleadership, and achieving the minimum standard ofRegistration would require additional staff, as set outin paragraph 8.7 in Chapter 8.

4 8 1 HERITAGE COLLECTIONS CENTRE

There is a recognised need for a centralised HeritageCollections Centre which would provide enoughspace to house all the city’s collections in store.

The Heritage Collections Centre would provideproper environmental conditions and improvesecurity for the storage and conservation of themuseums’ collections. In addition, it would providemodern conservation workshops, office accom-modation and visitor access facilities.

Initial cost estimates suggest it will need to bephased, with Phase I providing 6,500m2 for the decantof the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum at an indicative cost of £4.5m-£5m.

Future phases would provide enough space to houseall the City’s collections as well as bringing togetherthe archives and records currently held in differentlocations in the city, including the City Council’sarchives and records and those of the otherappropriate bodies such as the universities.

A site in South Nitshill is currently being investigated.It is hoped that Phase 1 of the work on the site willstart before the end of 2001.

4 8 2 COLLECTION INVENTORY

The alternative to completing the collectioninventory in 20 years is to include in the HeritageCollections Centre, Phase II, a complete inventory ofthe objects (i.e. a fixed-term three-year project teamwho would accelerate the inventory).This spend-to-save approach is being used for similar backlogprojects in York Museums. This would mean that itwould not be an archival repository which servedonly specialist visitors - public service and socialinclusion would be an inherent part of its function.The strategic importance of this initiative cannot beoverestimated, and it would make a major contri-bution to a National Audit of Collections, which isdeemed a high priority by the Scottish MuseumsCouncil. Bringing together all the City’s reservecollections (except those in the Burrell) to one placeprovides the essential preconditions for:-

• systematic inventory to meet audit requirements

• systematic storage of the collection in optimum conditions

• public access for school, college and specialist users

• access for members of the general public, formerdonors etc.

Phase II would include a basic inventory of all objectsin the collection, to Audit standards, and a moredetailed entry of 10% of the collection which is mostlikely to interest the general public in the next tenyears.

4 9 COLLECTING POLICY


Collecting human artefacts and natural historyspecimens for museums is shaped by a broadframework of legal regulations and professionalethical guidelines.These include The Code ofConduct of the Museums Association and theInternational Council of Museums (ICOM), as well asthe regulations of the Museums and GalleriesCommission Registration Scheme (Phase II).The greatdiversity of the collection is reflected in the range oflegislation and international agreements within whichcollecting takes place.These include: Customsregulations relating to imports; legislation relating toobjects accepted in lieu of tax; Firearms licensing;Birds Egg Licensing; the Convention on InternationalTrade in Endangered Species (CITES); the Wildlife andCountryside Act; and Treasure Trove (Bona Vacantiawithin Scotland).The policy should also take intoaccount Guidelines issued by the Museums andGalleries Commission on Repatriation andRestitution, and on the Spoliation of Works of Art.

A fundamental principle of all the guidelines andlegislation is the establishment of legal title.

The Museum should not acquire, whether bypurchase or gift, bequest or exchange, any itemsunless satisfied that valid title to the item in questioncan be acquired. In particular, no item should becollected that has been acquired in, or exportedfrom, its country of origin (including the UK or anyintermediate country in which it may have beenlegally owned) in violation of that country’s laws.Similarly museums should not acquire a biological orgeological specimen unless satisfied that it has notbeen collected, sold or otherwise transferred incontravention of any national or international wildlifeprotection or natural history conservation law ortreaty of the United Kingdom or any other country,except with the express consent of an appropriateoutside authority (e.g. a British court in the case of a



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specimen seized from a third party under theProtection of Birds Acts). Collecting should becarried out within specified parameters (geographical,chronological, etc.) which vary from collection tocollection.Within these parameters, and exceptionallyoutside them, collecting should take into account thecollecting interests of other museums and galleries.

There is a strong presumption against the disposal ofitems from the museum collections, other than invery specific circumstances.A formal Disposal Policyis therefore required which defines the process bywhich the highest level of approval (the Cultural andLeisure Services Committee) is secured forexceptions to be made. Specifically, the DisposalPolicy sets out the procedures for processing claimsfor the repatriation of human remains and culturalartefacts.

The People’s Panel raised issues about collecting, inparticular about the selection of objects forcollection and display.The Open Space Workshop onCare of Collections expressed concern that, in theabsence of an audit of collections in the city, areas ofinterest may be under-represented, or unnecessaryduplication may be taking up valuable resources.Thefollowing Policy objective is therefore recommendedas a means of addressing these issues:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 6

To review Glasgow’s Collecting Policy and,through consultation with other museums andwith existing and potential audiences, establishpriorities for future collecting, in particular toreflect the culture and interests of groupswhose history and culture is under-represented in the current collection.

4 9 2 STANDARDS AND FUTURE PROVISION

Collecting objects for a museum involves acommitment to preserve them forever, and to thelong-term costs for care, storage and display.Thedecision to acquire an object is therefore not takenlightly, and, like most museum authorities, Glasgow isnow extremely selective about what it collects.Glasgow Museums’ priority should be to make betteruse of existing collections rather than to makeextensive acquisitions.This recognises the richness ofexisting holdings and the limitations of time, staff,storage space and finance. It also implies that in theobjects which are collected, priority should be given to:

• the acquisition of objects which help increaseunderstanding of existing collections

• proposed acquisitions being accompanied by asmuch documentation as possible, to maximise theiruse in terms of increased understanding.

New areas of collecting should be few, and selectedto reflect changes in society and the environmentwhich can be effectively displayed in a museum usingreal objects. In particular, collecting should bedeveloped to reflect the Council’s social inclusion,education and visual arts policies, and to collect thepresent for the future.

4 9 3 CURRENT PROVISION: DONATIONSAND ACTIVE COLLECTING

The vast bulk of Glasgow’s collection has beenformed by gift, ranging from internationally famous artcollections (e.g. McLellan, McInnes, Burrell) toindividual specimens or local history objects.The longand deep tradition of public support for museumsmeans that this continues to be the most importantsource of acquisitions, despite the increasedcommercial value on almost every kind of object.

Glasgow Museums also collects actively in areaswhere there are gaps, usually relating to specificprojects aimed at broadening the scope of themuseum’s audience (for example Out of Sight, Out ofMind resulted in the acquisition of very significantcollections relating to mental health care in the city).

4 9 4 GENERAL PURCHASE

Despite the tradition of donation, purchasing remainsan important means of acquiring objects for the city’scollection.When objects ranging from the portrait ofGlasgow Art Dealer Alexander Reid by Vincent vanGogh to Benny Lynch’s World Championship boxingtrophy become available for purchase, GlasgowMuseums make every effort to be alert to suchopportunities and to raise the required funds.Theonly budget for acquisitions other than contemporaryart is a £5,000 Purchase Fund (reduced from £75,000in 1996).This symbolic amount was retained in thehope of future growth, but nonetheless provides asmall amount of funds to match grants for decorativearts and local history objects, especially from theNational Fund for Acquisitions.

4 9 5 ACQUISITIONS FOR THE BURRELL COLLECTION

The Burrell Trustees manage a trust fund whichmakes additions to the collection of material comple-



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mentary to the collection.The funding availableprovides the crucial contribution which levers ingrant aid from organisations such as the HeritageLottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund.Joint working by staff and trustees has led to theacquisition of major works, notably 16th centuryChinese furniture, and Judith and Holofernes by Lucas Cranach.

4 9 6 THE HAMILTON BEQUEST

This bequest is dedicated to the purchase of paintingsfor Kelvingrove and has contributed some of thebest-loved works to the collection. The vast increasein the cost of paintings since the establishment of thebequest has made purchasing more difficult, butsignificant purchases are still made, though lessfrequently.

4 9 7 CONTEMPORARY ART FUND

Acquisitions and Commissions made from theContemporary Art Fund (presently, £100,000 p.a.) arecarried out under a procedure based on recom-mendations by curatorial staff to the Director ofCultural and Leisure Services, who can authorisepurchases under £10,000, and the Convener of theCommittee who can authorise sums over that amount.

4 9 8 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTERWITHIN EXISTING RESOURCES

The value of the Burrell Trust Fund, the HamiltonBequest and the City Council’s Purchase Fund isalready maximised by using them to accesssubstantial grants.

For example, in 1999/2000 grants totalling £300,000were secured.The process by which theContemporary Art Fund is spent should be mademore inclusive, involving external experts andaudience representatives. Successful experiments inthis approach have been carried out, for exampleinvolving a women’s group in selecting a work byHelen Flockhart, and a committee in the commissionof an image of Jesus for the Millennium.This processshould be formalised to create a more open andinclusive collecting procedure.

4 9 9 WHAT COULD BE DONE WITHADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Collecting artefacts relating to contemporary life,both to represent excluded communities within themuseum displays and to pass on an enrichedcollection to the future, is not expensive in cash

terms, but is very time-consuming. Additionalcuratorial staff (see paragraph 8.7 in Chapter 8) arevital to enable this to take place, as are the additionalconservation staff to care for the objects collected.

Additional money for the Purchase Fund wouldenable the museum to acquire more objects whichare available through auction, antique dealers orprivate sale. A sum of £100,000 a year is theminimum which would enable the museum tofunction at a reasonable level in these markets. Evenwith this sum, most works of art from before WorldWar II which would be relevant to our collectionwould be extremely difficult to acquire, but it wouldprovide the matched funds which are the key to grant aid.

4 9 10 CONTEMPORARY ART

The acquisition of contemporary art is inevitablycontroversial, as it takes place before posterity hasdecided what merits long-term survival, though itshould be noted that posterity often changes itsmind. One way of addressing this would be to makean exception of the presumption against disposal forcontemporary art, and agree that after a specifiedlength of time (e.g. 10 years), works in this categorymay be sold. (Glasgow Museums also needs toaddress the issue of collecting the present for thefuture, and it may be useful to extend the remit ofthis process to contemporary objects reflectingchanges in society, whose merit is also difficult toassess.) A formal proposal evaluating the pros andcons of this should be brought forward to theCultural and Leisure Services Committee after theconsultation period and once the overall frameworkhas been agreed by the Council.

4 9 11 GLASGOW ART FOUNDATION

Raising funds to purchase artefacts and specimens forGlasgow Museums may be facilitated by the creationof a trust or foundation to which the Councilcontributes and other partners add grants anddonations. This could include either or both generalcollecting and collecting contemporary art, and wouldmake transparent to donors the acquisitions to whichtheir donations had contributed.The ContemporaryArt Fund (ideally at the original level of £200,000 p.a.)would be paid into this fund. Representatives of theGlasgow Art Foundation, museum staff, externalexperts and audience representatives, could manageboth purchases and, if they agreed to establish such aprocess, disposals.



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Visitors to Glasgow Museums donate approximately£60,000 every year, £50,000 of which is counted asincome towards the running costs of the museum service.It would be more appropriate for this money to be usedto add to the collection and therefore to be added to theCollecting Trust’s income. It should be noted, however,that this would require a compensatory £50,000 to beadded to Glasgow Museums’ revenue budget.

The Core Group recommends that a proposal on thisshould be brought to the Cultural and Leisure ServicesCommittee.



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5 1 INTRODUCTION

THE ROLE OF TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS

While the core collections of the city are the primeattraction for many visitors, local and tourist,temporary exhibitions play an important part insustaining the interest of regular visitors, bringingfacets of the city’s collection to light, and showingaspects of the heritage of the world to Glasgow.Exhibitions can carry out a large variety of functionsand evoke a wide range of reactions from visitors.They can inspire, inform and educate; they cancelebrate the natural world and human achievement;they can also explore human destructiveness,challenge preconceptions and help change attitudes.They can have a strong social inclusion function,providing groups with a platform for self-expressionand for sharing their culture with the widercommunity, thus extending a sense of ownership ofthe museums as civic spaces. Recent exhibitionsmounted by Glasgow Museums have covered:-

5 1 1 CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

This £1.2 million exhibition attracted substantialnumbers of foreign tourists, as well as locals andpeople from all over Scotland, and promotedGlasgow abroad when shown in New York, Chicagoand Los Angeles.

5 1 2 OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND

This explored the history of mental health care inScotland, working with relevant agencies and clientrepresentatives.

5 1 3 OPEN SESAME

This exhibition celebrated the arts of the Islamicworld, showing treasures of Glasgow’s collectionwhich had rarely been displayed before.This wasfollowed up with a longer-term display of works fromthe exhibition selected by representatives of the localMuslim community.

5 1 4 SCROLLS FROM THE DEAD SEA

Glasgow was the only UK venue for this world-classexhibition about one of the greatest archaeologicaldiscoveries of the 20th century, with deep resonancefor Western Civilisation.With 197,000 visitors in 17weeks this was the most popular temporaryexhibition ever mounted in Glasgow.

5 1 5 WILD WET AND WONDERFUL

A collaborative exhibition with Scottish NaturalHeritage, this exhibition celebrates the environmentalrichness of Scottish boglands, and their role in historyand archaeology.

5 1 6 ENTWINED

An exhibition of the works of Amrit and RavindarSingh, which included a specially commissioned workof Glasgow from a Sikh point of view.

5 1 7 OUR GLASGOW

This is a small area of the Visions of the Citypermanent display in the People’s Palace, given overto changing exhibitions by community groups tocelebrate their presence in the city or to raise issuesthey are concerned with. Groups which have shownso far include: Glasgow Asian community, GlasgowJewish community, Glasgow Women’s Library, Centrefor Women’s Health, Flourish House (mental healthproject), Glasgow and Deaf Connections.

Exhibitions encourage people who visit already tovisit more frequently, and can encourage one-off visitsfrom people who find a particular subject interesting.Crucially in terms of achieving the City Council’sSocial Inclusion and Educational objectives, they alsohave an important role to play in audiencedevelopment. Exhibitions of works from Glasgow’scollection can also help promote the city overseas,whether by attracting visitors to the city, or byshowing the treasures of the city abroad, andpromoting its image as a cultural tourist destination.

5 2 TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONPLANNING

Uncertainties created by the reductions in localgovernment funding and consequent reorganisationsof the museums service have made long-termplanning for major exhibitions difficult.To undertakesystematic audience development whether from asocial inclusion or tourist point of view, a muchlonger planning period than has been possible since1996 must be established for medium- to large-scaleexhibitions.This is especially important given the scaleof capital redevelopment being undertaken in thecity’s major museums. Long-term planning is alsocrucial to securing sponsorship by private sectorcompanies, which between 1990 and 1996 made asubstantial contribution to the exhibition funding.Thischapter aims to establish the framework within whichlonger-term planning of exhibitions can be established.

5CHAPTERExhibition Policies


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5 3 POLICY FRAMEWORK

There are no formal national or local policies forexhibitions. Glasgow City Council has had an informalpolicy of promoting tourism to the city throughmajor cultural festivals, responding to opportunitiesto compete for awards such as the European City ofCulture, the Year of the Visual Arts, and the Year ofArchitecture and Design.Temporary exhibitionsplayed a key part in all of these, with the CharlesRennie Mackintosh (1996) in particular attractingsubstantial numbers of overseas visitors.

To build on the international profile created by theseand other events (e.g. the Garden Festival), theGreater Glasgow and Clyde Valley Tourist Board(GGCVTB) advises a less ad hoc and more sustainedapproach.Within such an approach the architectureof the Victorian city and the core collections on long-term display are the key attraction for tourists, eithertaking city breaks or visiting Glasgow as part of aScottish holiday.Against this background temporaryexhibitions provide variety in the product and socreate marketing opportunities. One significantexhibition (i.e. an exhibition attractive enough toencourage international tourists to decide to visitGlasgow) every two years would be needed to meetthe GGCVTB requirements for internationalpromotion of the city.A key requirement for them tobe effective is long-term planning, i.e. adequate notice.

Temporary exhibitions also play an important role inday-trip visits from the Glasgow catchment area,helping to support Glasgow as a retail centre forcentral and western Scotland. Exhibitions withsufficient attracting power for this market need to be mounted more frequently, ideally once or twice a year.

Exhibitions mounted under these guidelines clearlyhave a contribution to make to achieving the keyCouncil objective of promoting economicregeneration.They can also help improve educationalstandards and promote lifelong learning and socialinclusion.The investment in the exhibitions, inmarketing and in support materials benefits localaudiences and, as in all aspects of the museumsprogramme, social inclusion is an integral aim.

More local, temporary exhibitions make specificcontributions to achieving educational objectives, aswell as sustaining the loyalty of existing visitors.ArtMachine II in the McLellan Galleries involvedwidespread participation by schoolchildren andadults, including those with learning difficulties, andwas a celebration of their creativity. Exhibitions canalso help achieve the city’s aim of becoming anincreasingly vibrant multicultural city.Targetedexhibitions can recruit new audiences, and, as the

long-term displays reflect their interests and cultures,help recruit them as regular visitors to the museum.For example the Salaam Festival in 1997 was thelargest celebration of Islamic culture in the UK for 25years. It was followed up by changing the long-termdisplays in Kelvingrove to include some of the city’sIslamic collections (selected in consultation withmembers of the local community).

This was essential to ensure that those who visited amuseum for the first time during 1997 would feelwelcome and recognised if they visited again, after thetemporary exhibitions were finished. Thus temporaryexhibitions can be a driver for change in the long-term displays as part of an overall audiencedevelopment programme.

In the Open Space event in June 1999, GlasgowMuseums’ exhibition policies attracted considerablediscussion.The participants wanted to see animprovement not only in Glasgow Museums’ ownexhibition programme (and related activities such asevents and contemporary art acquisitions), but also inco-operation between the Council’s museums andindependent establishments in developing anexhibition strategy for the city as a whole.They alsowanted to see more effective policies to useGlasgow’s museum and gallery resources tostrengthen the city’s national and international profileand to meet public interest in local history andnatural history.The Open Space participants werealso clear that they wanted to see the City Council’sCultural and Leisure Services Department taking thelead in this work, acting on its responsibility toprovide civic leadership and make its collections aswidely accessible as possible. It would accordingly beappropriate, in order to respond to these views andto meet these needs, for the Council to adopt thefollowing policy objective:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 7

To develop a 5-year rolling programme forinternational, national and regional exhibitionsin Glasgow’s Museums and Galleries.

5 4 STANDARDS AND FUTUREPROVISION

Exhibitions on a scale to attract substantial newaudiences, especially from excluded groups, and thosesignificant enough to attract international tourists andday-trip visitors should be planned at least three andideally five years ahead.This should be a rollingprogramme and should be updated annually.Theseexhibitions should have clear objectives devised incollaboration with relevant organisations to achieve

5CHAPTER Exhibition Policies


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the Council’s economic, educational and socialinclusion objectives.

5 5 CURRENT PROVISION

Glasgow Museums have an annual budget of £370,000for public programming. Of this, £260,000 is allocatedto developing, mounting and marketing exhibitions inall seven venues in which temporary exhibitions takeplace:-

• Kelvingrove







A further £100,000 is devoted to community-focusedevents in these venues (organised by the Venue BasedTeams) and £10,000 to producing and marketing theOpen Museum’s touring exhibitions and handling kits.

5 6 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTERWITHIN EXISTING RESOURCES

A continuation of this level of funding implies thatmajor exhibitions will need substantial externalfunding and/or to be charged for to be viable. Forexample, an exhibition of a quality and scale greatenough to make an impact on local and regionalvisitors to the Burrell or Kelvingrove would cost inexcess of £150,000.At current funding levels, onlyone exhibition on this scale can be organised in anyone year.

Secure funding at existing levels over longer periodsof time would enable more effective planning to takeplace, partnerships to be built and sponsorship to besecured. However, the museums’ infrastructure interms of the skills required to mount exhibitions(curatorial, conservation, education, design, events) isbelow the minimum level, and it is not certain thatlonger planning cycles alone will deliverimprovements.


While collaboration and partnership will generateadditional resources for the goals of promotingeconomic regeneration and the social inclusion andlifelong learning agendas, additional funding would be

required to maximise their effectiveness.Anadditional budget of £125,000 per annum forexhibitions would, it is estimated, enable the city’smuseums to achieve the standards necessary to giveeffective implementation to policy objective 7.

5 8 EXHIBITION PLANNING FOR THE CITY

POLICY OBJECTIVE 8

In conjunction with the Arts Section, toorganise a city-wide planning forum forsharing information and maximising opportu-nities for collaboration in programming,audience development and marketing.


The Arts Section of Cultural and Leisure Servicesmanages the City’s Cultural grants programme, whichsupports independent galleries and individual arts, andhas a broad remit to develop visual arts in the city(see Part Two of this review, on the Visual Arts).Integrating their role in the visual arts with city-wideexhibition planning is crucial to ensuring best use ofresources and maximum added value in terms ofmarketing, education and social inclusionprogrammes.A forum would enable collaborationwhere possible, agree themes for collaborativeprogramming, and an integrated audiencedevelopment strategy, providing opportunities forindividual venues to take part (or not), as appropriatefor their programme and audiences. Such a forumwould also provide opportunities for links betweenexhibitions, performing arts and other major events,and facilitate input from agencies involved inpromoting the city abroad.

5 8 2 CURRENT PROVISION

Many organisations in the city mount exhibitions, withassociated educational and outreach programmes.There is considerable collaboration on specificprojects, through individual contacts, bilateral working(e.g. between Glasgow Museums and the Hunterian,and between the Gallery of Modern Art and TheLighthouse) and organisations like the GlasgowGalleries Group, and the Charles Rennie MackintoshGroup.There is, however, no framework for long-term planning, and thus no strategic approach tofundraising, marketing or audience development.



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There is a general enthusiasm for partnership withinthe city, but it is difficult to capitalise on this whenmost organisations are over-stretched - notably theCouncil’s own museums and galleries. Changes to thesystem of local government finance to allow thelonger-term planning of budgets is essential for thedevelopment of strategic partnerships, but even withthis, it will be difficult to move beyond current levelsof co-operation without additional resources.


The 21 additional staff resources specified in 8.7 arethe minimum number required to enable the city todevelop a rolling 3-5 year exhibition plan whichwould contribute directly to the city’s key social,economic, educational and promotional objectives.The additional staff specified in paragraph - 8.11 would enable Glasgow to realise the full potentialof its collection.

5 9 PROMOTING GLASGOW’SNATIONAL AND INTERNATIONALPROFILE

5 9 1 INTRODUCTION

The key resource which the Museums and Galleriessection contributes to Glasgow’s national andinternational profile is its permanent collections -particularly the art collections in the Burrell,Kelvingrove, Gallery of Modern Art and theHunterian, though there is a strong and growinginternational market for technology and transportdisplays as well. For one market segment - expatriatesfrom the West of Scotland on return visits, anddescendants of Scottish emigrants - the Museum ofTransport and the People’s Palace provide crucialaccess to the history of their West of Scotland identity.

The experience of the Mackintosh exhibition inAmerica has shown that touring high-quality materialfrom the collection can raise the city’s profile ingeneral, and more particularly can be used by tourismand inward investment agencies to build networks.


There is no national or local policy for touringcollections abroad. However, raising the city’s profileand especially communicating the image of a culturalcity with a high quality of life fits with the objectivesof the Development and Regeneration Service

Department of the City Council, Glasgow and ClydeValley Tourist Board, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow,Scotland the Brand, and Locate in Scotland. Othermuseums and art galleries in the city, including theHunterian Museum and Art Gallery and GlasgowSchool of Art, are interested in collaborating on such a venture.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 9

To use Glasgow Museums’ collections andexhibitions to promote the city nationally andinternationally.


In order to sustain its position as the third mostvisited tourist destination in the UK, promote inwardinvestment by improving and communicating thequality of life in the city, and help attract conferences,Cultural and Leisure Services in general and itsmuseums in particular should devise strategies whichdeliver, or negotiate with partners, the following:-

• Active involvement of the museum and visual artssector in the strategic planning of the city’spromotional activities at home and abroad

• Specific targets for the sector’s inclusion in UK andScottish tourism marketing programmes

• The promotion of Glasgow Museums and VisualArts throughout the UK

• Touring of at least one exhibition outside the BritishIsles at all times

• Touring of at least one exhibition within the BritishIsles at all times

• At least one television programme a year aboutGlasgow Museums

• Work with all relevant stakeholders to maximisethe impact of Charles Rennie Mackintoshcollections and buildings and the architecturalheritage of Glasgow on the national and interna-tional image of Glasgow.


Due to the significant number of works which willnot be on display as a result of work on Kelvingrove,tours of Glasgow Style material to Japan and ofFrench paintings to the United States are beingorganised.These will be the first major tours sinceMackintosh was toured to the United States, in partnership with Glasgow School of Art and theHunterian Art Gallery.



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The tours currently being planned are one-offprojects, as indeed was the Mackintosh tour. It wouldbe impossible to resource a full programme on anongoing basis within the existing staff and budgetlevels. Such tours require at least two years toorganise, and to bring maximum benefits, they requirethree to five years of planning, so that the bestvenues can be booked and the exhibitions fit intolong-term marketing and sponsorship plans.This isonly achievable with consistent long-term resources.


There is evidence of international demand for touringexhibitions of the kind being toured to Japan and theUSA, which may be on a scale significant enough tomake touring financially self-sufficient after an initialinvestment of £300,000 over two years.This wouldcover the costs of: a Tour Manager, who would workwith curators to devise exhibitions and sell them tokey institutions abroad; a Conservator who wouldmanage the conservation of the objects prior totravel and ensure their condition was not affected bytransport and display; a Registrar who would arrangethe transport, insurance and customs transits for theobjects; an Administrator who would supervise thedocumentation and budgets; and marketing andresearch costs.These exhibitions would be targetedexclusively at destinations important for Glasgow’seconomic development, whether through tourism orinward investment.

A formal feasibility study and business plan should beundertaken which addresses:-

• the real resource implications of such tours, basedon the experience of the two tours to Japan andthe USA

• the range of material which could be organised intoappropriate touring exhibitions

• the impact of releasing this material for tour on thedisplays within the city

• the potential income generated, and its value inrelation to the real costs and the economic benefitto the city.

5 9 7 MACKINTOSH INGRAM STREETTEAROOMS

The interiors of the Ingram Street Tearooms designedby Charles Rennie Mackintosh have been preservedby the City and are now being restored in a project

funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Mr DonaldKahn.They represent one of Glasgow’s greatestunrealised cultural assets and it is one of the city’sobjectives to find an appropriate sustainable locationfor their display and interpretation.

5 10 LOCAL HISTORY

5 10 1 INTRODUCTION

Glasgow as a whole has a rich history, and eachneighbourhood within it has its own heritage.Thereare regular requests for museums to be established inhistoric areas of the city. Since 1945 the demolitionof large sections of the tenement city, the creation ofhousing schemes and new towns, and the decline ofheavy industry have meant that a large number ofindividuals have experienced dramatic and rapidchange.This has caused a sense of loss and a sense ofdislocation between the experiences of differentgenerations, which in turn have generated an interestin the recording of life histories, so that theseexperiences can be acknowledged, preserved and shared.


There is no national or local policy which dealsdirectly with local history. However, its importance isrecognised implicitly or explicitly in a whole range ofmajor policies such as those relating to TreasureTrove and Public Records, to Volunteering andCommunity Action, and to Social Inclusion. In an eraof rapid social change, local history is an increasinglyimportant element in individual and communalidentities, especially but not exclusively for elderlypeople.The latter can derive major benefits frominvolvement in local history activities, in terms ofintellectual and social stimulus, as well as anopportunity to contribute from their experiences andwisdom to younger generations and to the historicalrecord (e.g. through oral histories).The importanceof a sense of place is recognised as important to thequality of life for people of all backgrounds, and is akey element in making Glasgow a liveable city.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 10

To devise and implement a Local HistoryStrategy for the city.



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There is great potential to develop for the first timea systematic service which reflects the strong senseof neighbourhood identity within both Glasgow’shistoric boroughs and the more recently establishedcommunities, through joint working with Librariesand Archives, the Social Inclusion Partnerships andvoluntary organisations.

Support for voluntary Local History Societies, andother organisations interested in local history, such asamenity groups, arts groups or elderly groups, can bebased in the extensive library network, and draw onthe resources of the museums, libraries and archivecollections and staff. Bringing the relevant organisa-tions together and developing shared objectives andco-operative working is a substantial task. Linking thepast with the present through displays and relatedcross-generation events and activities can make asignificant contribution to community building andCommunity Learning Plans. In order to achieve theseobjectives, the Museums and Libraries sections ofCultural and Leisure Services should establish a LocalHistory Forum which will develop and implement aLocal History Strategy for the City.


The Museums and Galleries service providessignificant local history services through exhibitionsand events at the People’s Palace, the Museum ofTransport, Provands Lordship, and Kelvingrove.TheOpen Museum offers assistance to local historygroups to mount their own exhibitions in libraries orother venues, and manages the Glasgow 2000 Livesprogramme, working with volunteers to record lifehistories.The Libraries section mounts exhibitions inthe Mitchell Library, some of which tour tocommunity libraries. Independent organisationscontributing within the city include the National Trust(through Hucheson’s Hospital, Pollok House and theTenement House), the Glenlee and Provan Hall.

There is no systematic provision of these services toall areas of the city or to all groups, or coherent co-operation with the Adult and Continuing Educationdepartments of the Universities, Further EducationColleges, or the BBC and STV.

5 10 5 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER BYDIVERTING EXISTING RESOURCES

The greatest need is for management structureswithin museums and libraries to allocate clearresponsibility for developing a local history strategy

in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.Thiscan be achieved if the additional posts identified inChapter 8 are secured.

There is considerable experience to build a LocalHistory Strategy on, and in particular there is muchto be learned from Springburn Museum.Whilefunding for the museum is no longer available, thedisplay facilities and function are to be integrated intothe new Springburn Library in a more accessiblelocation within Springburn Leisure Centre.This, alongwith the Pollok Kist, will provide a pilot for asustainable city-wide service.

5 10 6 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTERWITH ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

City-wide and neighbourhood festivals celebratingaspects of Glasgow’s history, and print, multi-mediaand web-based publications and educationalprogrammes are all potentially possible withadditional resources.

5 11 NATURAL HISTORY

5 11 1 INTRODUCTION

Concern for the environment both within the cityand in the countryside accessible from the city isincreasingly important. Consultation with colleaguesprincipally in libraries, Land Services andDevelopment and Regeneration Services (mainlyPlanning), as well as with the Hunterian Museum,Scottish Natural Heritage, schools, colleges anduniversities, suggests that there is considerablepotential to bring together many voluntary andstatutory organisations concerned with naturalhistory and to plan activities more strategically.Research on public interests carried out for theKelvingrove 2000 project shows this to be a priority,and consultation with natural history organisationssuggests an expectation that the City museums take a lead.


Glasgow City Council has produced an EnvironmentalStrategy which has relevant objectives, especially interms of public education about the localenvironment, which should inform a Natural HistoryPolicy for museums. Other relevant Councilstrategies include the Landscape Strategy, Parks andOpen Spaces Strategy, and the Wildlife and NatureConservation Policy.Also mentioned in theEnvironmental Strategy are other initiatives such as



38

The Regeneration Alliance and The Derelict LandStrategy, while both a Contaminated Land Strategyand Local Air Quality Strategy are being developed.Close working with other Council services who havepolicies relating to natural history, such asDevelopment and Regeneration (Planning) and theCountryside Ranger Service of Land Services,is essential.

A Local Biodiversity Action Plan for Glasgow hasbeen formulated by all the major environmentalgroups within the City and is backed by the Council.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act, Convention onInternational Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)and other wildlife legislation affect what we shouldand should not take into our collections, and exhibit.Charitable bodies such as the Scottish Wildlife Trustand the RSPB have nature conservation policies andnature reserves.These and other bodies such as theGeological Society and the Amateur Entomologists’Society provide guidelines for responsible fieldworkand collecting and produce codes which shouldinform our collecting and exhibiting policies, asshould the collecting policies of other museums,especially that of the Hunterian and the NationalMuseum of Scotland.

Scottish Natural Heritage is charged with the conser-vation and improvement of the natural environment -the wildlife, habitats and landscape.

SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) isresponsible for legislation in areas dealing withpollution, waste disposal, air quality and the environment.

The views of local natural history bodies such as theGlasgow Natural History Society and the GeologicalSociety of Glasgow should also be considered.

The National Biodiversity Network (set up throughthe Joint Nature Conservation Committee, theBiological Records Centre and wildlife trusts) hasproduced national standards for recording.As a localrecord centre, we need take these into account.

The Farming Wildlife Advisory Group helps withliaison between farming bodies and environmentalgroups and provides funding to farmers to conserveimportant species habitats on their land.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 11

To develop and implement a Natural HistoryInterpretation Strategy for the city.

The Museums and Galleries service provides asignificant natural history service through collections,natural history records, exhibitions and events.Thedisplays in Kelvingrove and Fossil Grove are

permanent educational facilities relating to naturalhistory, with additional temporary interpretation

provided at other venues and through the Open Museum.

Working with colleagues principally in Libraries, LandServices, and Development and RegenerationServices, as well as with the Hunterian Museum,Scottish Natural Heritage, schools, colleges anduniversities, there is considerable potential to bringtogether many voluntary and statutory organisationsconcerned with natural history and to plan activitiesmore strategically.

The resources and staff of the museums, libraries andarchive collections can provide a systematic serviceto support natural history societies and other organi-sations interested in natural history, such ascommunity and amenity groups.

An increased understanding and appreciation of thelocal and global natural environment can bepromoted through access to collections, displays,related events and activities.


The Museums and Galleries service provides asignificant natural history service through collections,natural history records, exhibitions and events.Thedisplays in Kelvingrove and Fossil Grove arepermanent educational facilities relating to naturalhistory, with additional temporary interpretationprovided at other venues and through the Open Museum.

5 11 4 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTERWITH DIVERTED RESOURCES

The creation of a new post of Senior Curator ofNatural History would provide the focus and allocateresponsibility for co-ordinating the city-wide strategy.


As is the case for Local History, city-wide andneighbourhood festivals celebrating aspects ofGlasgow’s natural history, and print, multi-media andweb-based publications and educational programmesare all potentially possible with additional resources.



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40


6 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter addresses the issues of service qualitystandards and opening hours, and visitor attractionclassification and awards schemes as tools fordeveloping and ensuring improved visitor services. Italso addresses the overall marketing and promotionof the Service and considers the role and contri-bution of volunteers and specifically the “Friends ofGlasgow Museums” to visitor services and audiencedevelopment. Finally, it addresses the visitor serviceand commercial development opportunities affordedby museum retail, catering, venue-hire and corporatehospitality, and copyright and licensed materials.

6 2 SERVICE QUALITY


There are no formal national policies for the qualityof visitor services in museums and galleries.The CoreGroup has looked at the quality of visitor services inGlasgow’s Museums and Galleries in the context ofpolicies adopted by the City Council and in the lightof views expressed by those consulted in the courseof this review.

One of the City Council’s Key Objectives 1999-2002which relates to service quality is to:-

“Improve the effectiveness and value for money of allthe Council’s services”.

One of the priorities identified by the People’s Panelwas the need to improve facilities in Museums andGalleries for visitors.This applies to many aspects ofvisitor services and, in particular, catering, access fordisabled people and those with children, as well asopening hours which better suit visitor needs.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 12

To establish minimum service and qualitystandards for the provision of visitor servicesin Glasgow Museums and Galleries.

This policy aligns with one of the key objectives ofthe City Council. It also fits with a strategic priorityidentified by the People’s Panel.

6 2 2 STANDARDS ANDFUTURE PROVISION

Whilst there is no recognised or accredited qualitysystem within Glasgow Museums and Galleries, thereare recently agreed minimum standards for servicedelivery at all venues including, for example, physicalaccess and customer care. Some UK museum

services such as Birmingham and the NationalMuseums of Scotland have gained Chartermarkaccreditation, and certainly Chartermark criteriafocus on the service to the customer and could beused as a future benchmark to assess the quality ofvisitor services.

The Scottish Tourist Board (STB) classifications forvisitor attractions are another measure of the qualityof visitor services.These are currently recognised bythe Scottish Museums Council as complementing theRegistration Scheme for Museums.

The Scottish Tourist Board operates a nationalQuality Assurance inspection scheme for visitorattractions, including Museums and Galleries.Thisscheme provides the public with the means toidentify visitor attractions which meet the desiredquality; it provides an official independentendorsement of the visitor attraction, and encouragesand acknowledges improvements in standardsthroughout the industry.There are five quality gradesawarded for the standard of facilities and services,ranging from “exceptional, world class” to “fair andacceptable”.The core criteria of the scheme include:-

• Pre-arrival - covering brochures and leaflets; roadand directional signage; car parking

• Arrival - covering signage; price display; welcome,attitude, efficiency and appearance of staff; interiorlayout and cleanliness

• Catering - covering layout; menu presentation; foodpresentation and quality; attitude, efficiency andappearance of catering staff; décor and maintenance,and cleanliness

• Retailing - covering layout; merchandise; presenta-tion; attitude, efficiency and appearance of retailstaff; décor and maintenance, and cleanliness

• Adequacy and cleanliness of toilet provision.

In addition, there are specific criteria which relate toMuseums and Galleries and cover areas such as:interpretation and information; presentation ofcollection; balance and mixture of content andfacilities; décor and maintenance of the attractionarea; safety provision; attitude, efficiency, knowledgeand appearance of staff; internal signage and guides.


At present, only St Mungo’s Museum is highlycommended (which is equivalent to a 4-star gradingunder the new scheme), and all other Museums arecommended under the current Scottish Tourist BoardVisitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (whichis equivalent to a 2-star grading under the new scheme).

6CHAPTERVisitor Services


41

A robust customer feedback system has beenestablished within each venue to enable anassessment of visitors’ perceptions of the quality ofthe service in Glasgow Museums.This comprises acomments card and visitors book system enablingvisitors to make general comments and specificsuggestions regarding the quality of the serviceprovided.A tracking system was recently introducedin which visitor comments/complaints areacknowledged within 10 days and followed up by awritten response by the relevant staff member with atarget date for any action required.


It is recommended that within 5 years all appropriateGlasgow Museums should aspire to achieve a 5-stargrading (i.e. Exceptional,World Class) under the newScottish Tourist Board Visitor Attraction QualityAssurance Scheme.This means that GlasgowMuseums will have to meet the appropriate standardsfor the core criteria of the scheme and the specificcriteria which relate to Museums and Galleries, asoutlined in 6.2.2 This is a major task which involvessignificant capital commitment to bring all appropriatevenues up to 5-star grading. However, at the veryleast the City Council should aim to bring itsprincipal venues up to the highest possible grading,prioritising the following venues for the achievementof 5-star grading:- Kelvingrove, Gallery of Modern Art(GoMA), Burrell Collection, People’s Palace andMuseum of Transport.

6 3 OPENING HOURS


One of the issues raised by the People’s Panel wasfor consideration to be given to the introduction ofextended opening hours at some Glasgow Museums.

The current opening hours at Glasgow Museums are:-

• 10.00am to 5.00pm on Monday to Thursday andSaturday, and 11.00am to 5.00pm on Friday andSunday - a total of 47 hours per week.The lateopening on Friday was introduced in 1999 to makecommunication with staff during the Best ValueReview process possible (the current rota systemdoes not allow front-of-house staff to meet).


In order to address the issue raised by the People’sPanel, Cultural and Leisure Services proposes tointroduce extended opening (up to 8.00pm) on oneevening a week at Kelvingrove Art Gallery andMuseum, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museumof Transport during the Spring/Summer season.Effective marketing is essential in order to test thischange in long-established visitor habits.The reviewcould also consider a revision of Friday opening backto 10.00am from 11.00am.

6 4 MARKETING GLASGOW MUSEUMS


There are no formal national policies for marketingand promotion of museums and galleries. However,the Core Group has looked at marketing andpromotion of Glasgow Museums in the context ofpolicies adopted by the City Council and theGlasgow Alliance, and in the light of views expressedby those consulted in the course of this review.

One of the City Council’s Key Objectives 1999-2002is to:-

• Develop Glasgow’s metropolitan role, quality oflife and services for the benefit of its citizensand visitors to the city.

One of the objectives of the Glasgow AllianceStrategy,“Creating Tomorrow’s Glasgow” (1998), is tocreate the “Vibrant City” by:-

“ improving the choice and quality of visitor attractions,cultural facilities and the city’s tourism infrastructure;improving linkages between City Centre attractions,including signage; and securing the development ofinternational standard cultural facilities which will beattractive to visitors, residents and local entrepreneurs. ”

An integral part of the wider Glasgow Alliance Plansfor the city is “Glasgow’s Renewed Prosperity - AJoint Economic Strategy” prepared by Glasgow CityCouncil and Scottish Enterprise (Glasgow). Ofparticular relevance to Museums and Galleries is thefollowing action to:-

“ Develop a world class urban product by investing inupgrading current cultural assets to the highest international standards including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. ”

One of the top priorities voted by participants at theOpen Space Event and considered by a follow-upworkshop was audience development and marketing.

6CHAPTER Visitor Services


42

In particular it considered how museums and galleries canincrease and broaden attendances and encourage repeatvisitors. It also explored the wider marketing issuesaffecting all Glasgow’s museums and galleries.Two of thetop priorities voted on by the People’s Panel were: theneed for more effective advertising and information on“what’s on” in museums and galleries; the need toadvertise in a child-friendly way which engages the nextgeneration as early as possible to take an interest in, anduse museums and galleries.

The Core Group accordingly recommends thefollowing policy objective on marketing andpromoting Glasgow Museums:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 13

To develop a Marketing Plan for GlasgowMuseums that targets new audiences bysupporting and promoting access, educationand outreach strategies, and existing audiencesby encouraging repeat visits, and supports thepromotion of Glasgow as a major national andinternational visitor destination.


There are no formal standards set for the marketingand promoting of museums and galleries. However, aspart of this Best Value Review other comparablemuseums services were invited to take part in abenchmarking exercise.Those who participated were:the National Museums of Scotland, the NationalGalleries of Scotland, Birmingham Museum and ArtGallery,Tyne and Wear Museums and Dundee CityCouncil.The benchmarking exercise indicated thattotal marketing and promotion costs for GlasgowMuseums Service amount to £49 per 1,000 visitors,the lowest amongst all the benchmarking partnersand well below the average marketing and promotionexpenditure of £151 per 1,000 visitors.

Glasgow Museums attract over 3 million visits perannum. Extensive research undertaken by LowlandMarket Research in 1998/99 (11,000 face-to-faceinterviews at seven venues) indicated 39% of visitsare from within the Glasgow City Council area, 42%from the rest of Scotland, 12% from the rest of theUK and 6% from outwith the UK. Other keyinformation included the preponderance of visitorsfrom the A, B and C1 socio-economic groups and theunder-representation of disabled and minority ethnicgroups and citizens from social groups C2, D and E.This indicates that there is clearly potential todevelop new audiences from within Glasgow by

focusing on the barriers to access and capturing theinterest of those who are socially and culturallyexcluded. It is proposed that a marketing plan forGlasgow Museums is prepared by the end of 2001which targets new and existing audiences and alsopromotes the profile of the Service, both nationallyand internationally. It should contain a 3-year publicprogramme, and an audience development andmarketing strategy for each venue which willincorporate explicit performance targets.


In terms of targeting new audiences, market researchcould be used to establish more precisely thosesections of the Glasgow population who are under-represented or are not presently using the service.Toachieve this, a service-wide Customer FeedbackSystem was introduced in October 2000 and an on-going market research programme (especially amongnon-visitors) is being established to support moreeffective and targeted marketing, and thedevelopment of longer-term customer relationships.

Marketing resources and new technologies could bedeployed to provide targeted promotional andadvertising support which takes into account a widerrange of lifestyles and learning styles.This wouldsupport the work of the curators, the new Educationand Access Officers, the proposed Learning Assistantsand the Open Museum, who together will have theprincipal, proactive remit for targeting new audiencesthrough their outreach, education and lifelonglearning activities and programmes. Under the newMarketing Structure for Cultural and LeisureServices, marketing resources will be devolved tofrontline services with a minimum of two officersdedicated to providing marketing and promotionalsupport for the Museums Service.

In order to promote the national and internationalprofile and the business tourism potential of GlasgowMuseums, it will be necessary to develop reciprocalmarketing networks and relationships both within andoutwith the City, to contribute to other keyinitiatives such as the city-wide Marketing andTourism strategies, and to work in close collaborationwith key partner organisations including the CityCouncil’s Development and Regeneration Services,Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Greater Glasgow andClyde Valley Tourist Board and Convention Bureau,and the Scottish Tourist Board.



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The benchmarking exercise indicated that totalmarketing and promotion costs for the serviceamounts to £49 per 1,000 visitors, the lowestamongst all benchmarking partners. If the CityCouncil could increase the overall marketing andpromotion budget for Glasgow Museums closer tothe average expenditure of the benchmarkingpartners of £151 per 1,000 visitors, this would enablethe dedicated officer resource required to supportthe marketing of the service to be expanded andshould include a dedicated resource for sponsorshipand fundraising.

At the same time this would provide greateropportunity for media advertising, specific marketingcampaigns, market research and national and inter-national promotion.The City Council cannot expectto get the full benefit of its Museums Service, particu-larly with respect to the promotion of Glasgowthroughout the UK and internationally, withoutinvesting in the necessary marketing programme.

6 5 VOLUNTEERS


Glasgow City Council recognises the vast contri-bution made to the quality of life in the city by thecontribution of volunteers, and is committed tosupporting their work, and developing policies andstrategies which foster volunteering.“ActiveCommunities,A Draft Strategy for Volunteering andCommunity Action” states the Scottish Executive’s“strong commitment to supporting volunteering andencouraging community action”, which they see asplaying an important role in “promoting activecitizenship”.The aims of the draft strategy are to:-

• bring about more positive attitudes at all levelstowards volunteering and community action

• locate volunteering and community action at theheart of policy

• broaden the range of people involved

• increase the number of people involved.

“Volunteer Development”, Scotland’s Framework forVolunteering, Policy and Procedures on Volunteers,strongly recommends that organisations who workwith volunteers develop formal policy and proceduresto cover all aspects of their recruitment, training andmanagement. It sees this as important in order tohighlight and acknowledge the value of the contri-bution made by volunteers, reflect the values,

standards and strategies of the relevant organisation,and clarify the ways in which volunteers complementrather than replace permanent staff.

As part of the Best Value Review, consultation tookplace with the Friends of Glasgow Museums, a 2,200-strong voluntary organisation which provides supportto the Museum Service in achieving its objectives, anddirect services to visitors as well as its members.They strongly support the development of an activepolicy on volunteering to be developed jointly by staffand volunteers working together, in line with Council priorities.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 14

To support and encourage the contribution ofvolunteers to Glasgow Museums by developinga set of procedures which set out the roles,rights and responsibilities of volunteers andestablish clear principles for their involvementin the delivery of services.


The development and implementation of a formalPolicy and accompanying set of procedures forvolunteers working in Glasgow Museums should setout the roles, rights, and responsibilities of volunteersand establish clear principles for their involvement inthe delivery of services. Extending recruitment togroups in society who do not volunteer, and servicesprovided by volunteers to excluded groups willensure that the volunteering strategy contributes tosocial inclusion.


FORMAL EDUCATION

Glasgow Museums provides opportunities forstudents in full-time education, especially secondary-school students seeking work placements andMuseum Studies students seeking work placements,as well as students in specialisms such as art historyor archaeology.

THE FRIENDS OF GLASGOW MUSEUMS

The Friends of Glasgow Museums was founded (asthe Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums Association -GAGMA) in 1942 by Dr Tom Honeyman.With over2,200 members it is the largest organisation of itstype in the country.The Friends contribute to the



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museum in a number of ways.They:-

• raise funds to purchase objects for the collection

• sponsor the annual children’s Art Competition andallocate funds from two bequests for children’sactivities

• provide Volunteer Guides for Kelvingrove, theBurrell Collection, the Gallery of Modern Art andthe Museum of Transport. Many visitors commenton the enthusiasm and skill of the guides, who aregreatly appreciated

• contribute funds to museum projects, includingexhibitions, publications and conservation. Infinancial year 1999/2000 the Friends contributed£28,000 to museum projects.

SERVICES TO MEMBERS

As well as providing direct services to museum usersthrough the guides, and supporting other projectsthrough funding, the Friends provide a significantnumber of benefits to their members.The VoluntaryCommittee organises a range of activities, includingdaytime and evening lectures, and visits to museumsand similar heritage attractions.The Friendscontribute £5,000 annually to the cost of Preview, thequarterly museum newsletter, which is mailed to allmembers and also serves as a general marketingpublication for the service.

The Friends have been consulted in depth about theplans to modernise Kelvingrove, and over 300attended a series of meetings about the project, whileothers responded to a written questionnaire.


Developing better volunteer placements for studentsin formal education and those engaged in lifelonglearning will be made possible by the appointment ofthe Education and Access officers.The Friends are anextremely supportive organisation and staff andvolunteers work closely on a variety of projects.Theopportunities for developing volunteering in a moresystematic way would require significant additionalstaff input, which is difficult to arrange within currentresources.

The Core Group proposes that a more detailedreport on volunteering is developed in consultationwith The Friends of Glasgow Museums and is broughtto Cultural and Leisure Services Committee.


A full-time member of staff dedicated to developingvolunteering within the Museum Service wouldgreatly improve the support offered to the Friendsand greatly enhance their contribution to the deliveryof services, both behind the scenes and to the public.

6 6 RETAIL, CATERING,VENUE HIRE ANDSPONSORSHIP


Glasgow City Council’s current position is for retailand catering services to be provided in-house byCultural and Leisure Services and Direct and CareServices respectively.

One of the priorities voted on by the People’s Panelis the desire to see facilities such as catering inMuseums and Galleries improved.

There is also a need, highlighted throughout thisreport, to improve income generation withoutcharging for access.

The Core Group recommends the following policyobjective on retail and catering provision, and othersources of income generation in Glasgow Museums.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 15

To provide high-quality retail and catering inGlasgow Museums sympathetic to the uniqueexperience in each venue and to maximiseincome from all potential sources withoutbreaching the principle of free access.

This policy relates to four main areas of incomegeneration:-

• Retail

• Catering

• Venue Hire and Corporate Hospitality

• Sponsorship and Voluntary Donations


Consultants ‘The Retail Group’ were jointly commis-sioned by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and GlasgowCity Council Cultural and Leisure Services in May2000 to identify the retail potential, develop astrategic plan and set out the retail vision forGlasgow Museum shops in the light of the retail



45

opportunity and the optimum management model;and to provide a clear, reasoned, qualitative andquantitative case for the future direction of, andappropriate investment in, the Glasgow Museumshops.The review reported back to the Core Groupin November 2000 and advised on futuremanagement models for this part of the service,appropriate standards of provision and managementmodels for each venue along with net income targets,and different means for procuring services.

A separate review of Glasgow Museum cateringoperations was carried out by the Moffat Centre,Glasgow Caledonian University.The review reportedback to the Core Group in November 2000. Itreviewed the current range, quality and effectivenessof catering provision, and the current demand andcurrent catering management operations.

In doing so, it advised on the most appropriate andeffective future management structure and operation,and the appropriate standards for delivery of animproved catering service at each venue.

It should also be noted that the Scottish TouristBoard operates a Quality Assurance inspectionscheme for Visitor Attractions.There are specificcriteria relating to Museums and Galleries whichinclude quality standards for catering and retail.Thesecover areas such as: food presentation and quality;attitude, efficiency and appearance of staff; cleanliness;merchandise, and décor and maintenance.

6 7 GLASGOW MUSEUM RETAIL


A retail service is provided in all Glasgow Museums.

Benchmarking information shows that visitors toGlasgow Museums spend on average a total of £0.69per head, the 2nd lowest spend per visitor amongstthe benchmarking partners; this includes an averageretail spend of £0.36 per visitor, about average of allbenchmarking partners but significantly less than the£0.82 retail spend per visitor achieved by theNational Gallery of Scotland.

Information on the performance of Glasgow MuseumRetail for 1999/2000 (Actuals) indicates that it failedto meet its budgeted expenditure/income target andmade a substantial loss of over £250,000. Incalculating this loss, retail expenditure has been takento include employee costs as well as cost of sales andstock write-off.The budget for 2000/2001 has beenadjusted to reflect a decrease in turnover and the netbudget can only be achieved with a substantialincrease in turnover and net income.

The Consultant’s Report highlights a number offactors which indicate the potential for GlasgowMuseum shops to trade at a higher level. Glasgow isan established leisure destination, securing over 83million trips per year, resulting in circa £1,500 millionof expenditure.This is in addition to the many tripsmade by the resident Glasgow population. However,Glasgow Museums are capturing less than 1% of thespend on gifts and souvenirs from tourists andvisitors. It found that the museums are consistentlyconverting fewer visitors to shop purchases thanmany of the benchmark operators surveyed as partof the review. In addition, Glasgow Museums’ averagespend per visitor is only 20-35% of that achieved atother major attractions.


Extensive Market Research has identified that for thevisitor, museum shops and catering are intrinsic partsof the museum experience and as such theirpresence should complement and enhance their visit.

The aim is for the retail facilities to be moreresponsive to the needs of Glasgow’s localcommunities, and of national and internationalvisitors, and to support access to the Museumcollections by promoting shopping as an intrinsic part of the Glasgow Museums experience. GlasgowMuseums also need to improve the profitability ofthese operations.

An initial audit of Glasgow Museum retailing hasshown that many fundamental operational issues areimpeding current performance and the potential tofurther develop the retail service, enhance the visitorexperience and generate additional income, asituation which requires immediate attention.

This was reinforced by the Consultant’s Reportwhich identified the principal areas for improvementin Glasgow Museum shops.These include thefollowing key operational issues at shop level and atthe central function level:-

• Provision of a focused independent managementresource, including systems and procedures, forboth retail operations and buying/stock control functions

• Improve external visibility and the impact of the shops

• Improve retail systems

• Refocus and rationalise the range of stock

• Increase the number of bespoke lines available



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• Implement and develop a sales managementinformation system

• Develop a cohesive marketing strategy for themuseums and shops

• Invest in a training programme for staff

• Develop a focused and motivated managementteam and staffing structure (including a productdevelopment officer and retail operations manager).

The Consultant’s Report clearly indicates thatsignificant improvements can be made both to thequality of service provided for customers and to theeconomic efficiency of operating the retail outlets inGlasgow Museums.An evaluation of the optionspresented by the Retail Group indicate the clearbenefits of selecting the option which will retain themanagement of the shops in-house.

6 7 3 FUTURE MANAGEMENT MODEL

The Consultant’s Report defines three broad options:-

Option 1 - The Current Model

The current operating and management model could not satisfy any of the criteria and is not a valid option.

Option 2 - New Model for City CouncilOperation

This is a viable option that will bring real benefits tothe city, both for the residents of and visitors toGlasgow.This option enables the City Council tomanage and control the retail offer to complementand enhance the Museum experience for the visitor.It also provides the opportunity to benefit from anyexpansion of the retail offer beyond the Museumshops. However, it will require additional revenue andcapital investment by the Council of circa £400,000which includes staff, product development andmarketing budget, and some investment in signageand physical layout.

Option 3 - Third Party Operator

This is a viable option, albeit one that possibly hasless advantage for the Council. One anticipateddifficulty is finding a third party operator who isinterested in signing a management agreement for allthe sites.Also any third party operator’s objective willbe to maximise profit, which may not be in line withthe service development of the museums. In addition,income generation for the City Council will belimited to “rent agreement” or commission.

6 7 4 RECOMMENDATIONS

The Consultant’s review recommends that Option 2 -New Model for City Council Operation - haspotentially the greatest rewards, and specifically interms of asset development, brand development andpotential financial rewards.

The Consultant recommends that the City Counciloperate and control the Glasgow Museum retailactivity and invest in the systems, staff, product andsupport to make it the success it is capable of being.

6 8 GLASGOW MUSEUM COPYRIGHTAND LICENSING


Glasgow’s collections contain many objects andimages for which there is a market in reproductions.One clerical assistant and one photographictechnician at present manage the museum’s photolibrary, and there is no investment in extending therange of images, cataloguing or marketing its resources.


Given the complexity of, and the rapidly changinglegislation relating to, copyright and the need tomanage systematic publications of the collection, oneof the key posts identified by the Core Group is aCopyright and Publications Officer, who could managethe photo library, develop links with publishers andgenerate income (see Chapter 8, paragraph 8.7).Thedissemination of images is also an important means ofpromoting the service and providing a world-wideservice to non-visitors and virtual visitors.

6 8 3 GLASGOW MUSEUM CATERING:CURRENT PROVISION

A catering service is provided in the followingGlasgow Museums:-

a) Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

b) The Burrell Collection

c) Gallery of Modern Art

d) Museum of Transport

e) St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life

f) People’s Palace

g) Scotland Street School Museum (vending machines)



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Catering refers to two main forms across the service:Served Meals and Self Service Snacks/LightRefreshments. Banqueting is addressed under thesection “Venue Hire/Corporate Hospitality”. GlasgowCity Council Direct and Care Services provide thecatering for visitors.


The consultation process and in particular thePeople’s Panel raised concerns regarding the qualityof catering provision and its cost for low-incomefamilies. Both are the subject of frequent commentsfrom visitors along with concerns about the quality ofservice and poor design of café and catering facilities.

The Review of catering by the Moffat Centre outlinesthree options for catering.

Option 1 - Do Nothing

This option would continue the current arrangement,including the system of ad hoc decision making, andnot address the strategic aims of the museums’ bestvalue review.The consequences of this would be:

• Café sales are likely to continue to decrease

• Investment for equipment maintenance,refurbishment and redesign would be required.

• Catering would continue to impact negatively onoverall visitor experience

• Continued low average catering spend.

Option 2 - Retain and Revise Current Contractwith Direct and Care Services

This option would review the existing contractualagreement and in consultation with Direct and CareServices agree on a revised contract for eachmuseum venue.

This option would incorporate:

• The establishment of a post of CommercialDevelopment Coordinator within Cultural andLeisure Services.This would have a strategic role ofcoordinating all elements of catering contract,management and quality assurance. It would have amonitoring role.This should ensure that clearquality standards are established and maintained forthe future.

• Development of brand theming and service style foreach venue agreed by a small working group withrepresentatives from curatorial staff, venuemanagement and DCS

• Possible development of strategic alliances withhigh-street franchises to strengthen brand

awareness, the costs for investment in design to beincurred by the catering contractor.

• Identify menu guidelines for café and functions tointroduce greater range of fresh, quality, healthyfoods with utilisation of Scottish produce.

• Develop complaints procedure and independentquality assurance.

• Agreement of a programme of investment forfixtures and fittings within each venue

Option 3 - Alternative Procurement

This option would introduce greater administrationinput in the set-up period. However, it is likely toachieve the greatest commerical returns andinvestment potential for Cultural and Leisure Servicesand Museums Service.

The five contracts for museum catering at each ofthese venues would elicit signficant interest from thecommercial market.

Option 4

A fourth option, which is a hybrid of Options 2 and3, is however recommended by the Core Group.Thiswould retain the catering service with Direct andCare Services but put out to tender the contract forthe catering in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.This option is particularly relevant where substantialcapital investment is required and could be securedby tendering the catering to an external supplier.Thiswould enable additional capital investment to belevered towards the refurbishment proposals forKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

As part of Cultural and Leisure Services’ plannedcapital improvement programme, resources would besought to improve retail and catering provision withinGlasgow Museums.

6 9 GLASGOW MUSEUM VENUEHIRE/CORPORATE HOSPITALITY


Venue hire in Glasgow Museums began around1990/1992, with the aim of generating additionalrevenue for the Service. Historically, the Serviceoffers a range of sixteen conferencing facilities(rooms) and reception and dining areas for hire, fromthe banqueting hall at Kelvingrove to the popularKelvin Street at the Museum of Transport. Generallytheir unique setting and the quality of experiencemake most spaces attractive for both large and small-scale events, banqueting and corporate hospitality.Thehigh value and fragility of the works on display



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requires special sensitivity in the way this service is provided.

Two of the main clients are the Greater Glasgow andClyde Valley Tourist Board and Glasgow ConventionBureau who utilise these spaces and act on behalf oftravel agents, large organisations and internationalcorporations in packaging conferences which willattract business to Glasgow.

Venue Hire/Corporate Hospitality formed part of theconsultancy study undertaken by the Moffat Centre.It highlighted that management, supervisory, staffingand catering arrangements are split between Culturaland Leisure Services and Direct and Care Services.The split structure is a key issue impacting on theservice offered to customers and requires to bereviewed along with the detailed staffing, adminis-tration, information management, sales and marketing arrangements.

The consultancy study recommended that the splitstructure be urgently addressed, either by franchisingthe service to an external operator or by bringingthe booking and administrative functions togetherwith the catering services to form one managementfunction under Direct and Care Services.


Since early 2001,Venue Hire and CorporateHospitality have been transferred to Direct and CareServices.This provides:-

• improved and more co-ordinated booking, adminis-tration, management and catering arrangements forvenue hire

• a more corporate and improved approach to thepromotion of venue hire/corporate hospitalityacross the full range of Cultural and LeisureServices facilities and venues

• an increase in net income to the service.



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7 1 INTRODUCTION

Glasgow City Council owns and manages ninemuseums and galleries. It also leases Pollok House tothe National Trust to manage, and McLellan Galleriesto the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) for ashort period while the CCA building undergoesrefurbishment. Martyrs’ School houses conservationstudios and is open to the public.

Seven of these eleven buildings are listed, mostlyCategory A.The buildings with by far the greatestproperty and maintenance costs are the BurrellCollection and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.The displays in some have recently been renewed andmeet modern standards of accessibility, and arerelevant to existing audiences. Others are in need ofmajor renewal.

7 2 VENUE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY


The basis upon which Glasgow Corporation beganthe operation of museums was the 1843 Librariesand Museums Act.This was enabling legislation, andwhile Libraries have become a statutory service,museums are discretionary. However, the currentlegislation under which the City Council operatesmuseums is the Local Government and Planning Act(1982). Since the 19th century Glasgow has consist-ently used museums and art galleries as aninstrument of policy. Both the People’s Palace (1898)and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (1902)were associated with major industrial exhibitionswhich were explicitly designed to give Glasgow anadvantage in competition with its industrial andcommercial rivals in the UK and abroad.These andother early museums also had very strong social andeducational purposes reflecting the Victoriancommitment to social reform and civic government.

The interpretation of “adequate cultural provision”would need to take into account the regional signif-icance of Glasgow Museums, 40% (1.2 million) ofwhose visitors come from the rest of Scotland.Thestructures of local government in Scotland, especiallysince the abolition of Strathclyde Regional Council,do not take into account the funding of majorinfrastructural institutions such as Glasgow Museums.

Since the 1980s Glasgow’s Museums have mademajor contributions to the city’s economicdevelopment strategy, as part of the rebranding as aCity of Culture, and the change from a manufacturingto a service and creative industrial city.The openingof the Burrell Collection in 1983 was the real

beginning of this strategic shift. Just as the city’searliest museum was set up in response to a majorbequest (by Sir Archibald McLellan, in 1857), theBurrell Collection was also the result of a major giftto the city, by Sir William and Lady Burrell.The cityhas benefited from a large number of benefactionsand it has been the Council’s policy to foster andwelcome this great tradition.The city of course hasalso collected actively itself and established newmuseums to house new collections, most significantlythe Gallery of Modern Art in 1996. Otherdevelopments, such as St Mungo’s Museum ofReligious Life and Art, were ad hoc solutions tospecific problems (for example the funding problemsof the Cathedral Visitor Centre), but were carriedout in terms of Council aims and objectives.

The rest of this report is about the policies anddevelopment aims of the city to which museums cancontribute.This chapter deals with how these policiesimpact on the individual venues, and their short- andmedium-term development, in terms of the principalbuilding, display and property management issues.Toensure that these matters receive proper attention,the Core Group recommends the followingstatement of policy:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 16

To establish a capital funding plan andproperty maintenance and managementstrategy that safeguard the future of the CityCouncil’s museum buildings and galleries andprovide for the physical development ofimproved visitor services, displays andexhibitions.


All the museums and galleries run by the city requireupgrading to meet modern standards of access for all,health and safety, and energy efficiency. More needsto be invested in routine maintenance and upgradingof the appearance of public areas, renewal ofinterpretative displays, and visitor services such asshops, cafés, signage and toilets. Driving up standardsin these areas requires more focused management aswell as capital investment, and Chapter 8 on Staffingrecommends that each venue be managed by oneindividual with overall responsibility for publicprogramme and service quality.The aim of the CityCouncil should be for all its museums to achieve 5-star grading in the Scottish Tourist Board VisitorAttractions Scheme (see Chapter 6, paragraph 6.2.4for details).The main priorities for major capital

7CHAPTERVenue Development Strategy


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investment over the next five years for the CityCouncil’s museum and gallery venues are KelvingroveArt Gallery and Museum, the Burrell Collection, andthe Museum of Transport. Investment is also requiredat Scotland Street Museum and Provands Lordship.These priorities will pose funding pressures on theCity Council’s scarce capital resources and keyfunding partners such as the European RegionalDevelopment Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund.The impact of recent and future reductions inrevenue on the service have been set out elsewherein the report.The Core Group has concluded thatthere is no real alternative to the city running at leastthe core of major museums (though ideally withsupport from central government funds).This core comprises:

• Kelvingrove





Without (or even with) central government funds, itmay not be possible to sustain and develop allmuseums currently operated by Glasgow Museums.This report therefore explores options for disposalor management by other organisations of the following:


• St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art


• Martyrs’ School

These four venues are recommended for consid-eration primarily because there are potential partnerswho may be interested in running them, or potentialalternative uses if disposal is considered.

In considering the options, the Council will wish toweigh up the potential advantages of releasing fundsfor investment elsewhere in the museums serviceagainst the disadvantages of change. For example, oneof the advantages of transferring management to acharitable body is that it relieves the Council of thecost of commercial rates. On the other hand, thisadvantage could be lost if there were to be a changein rating law.The Council may also wish to examinecarefully its experience of closures and transfers todate. For example, the transfer of management ofPollok House to the National Trust has saved theCouncil £140,000 per annum; but it also entailed aconsiderable increase in work for Glasgow Museumsstaff in the first two years, and they retain acontinuing responsibility for key tasks in respect of

the Pollok House collection, tasks which would alsostay with Glasgow Museums if the Burrell Collectionwere to be transferred.

The Core Group believes these options have to beconsidered with great care and rigour, but it is farfrom being a foregone conclusion that thoroughexamination will show that they ought to beimplemented.

7 3 KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM

7 3 1 INTRODUCTION

Kelvingrove is Glasgow’s best-loved museum and artgallery. Opened in 1901 for the InternationalExhibition, and in 1902 as a civic art gallery andmuseum, Kelvingrove is the greatest achievement inthe UK of the Victorian municipal museummovement. It is a Category A listed building, in aparkland setting, and an invaluable amenity for thecity.With over 1,000,000 visits annually, it is the mostpopular museum and art gallery in the UnitedKingdom, outside London.

Kelvingrove displays international quality collections,which are encyclopedic in scope. Highlights include:-

• Old Master Paintings

• French Impressionist and Post-Impressionistpaintings

• Late 19th and early 20th century Scottish fine anddecorative art

• Scottish and Glasgow history

• West of Scotland archaeology

• West of Scotland natural history

• Late 19th and early 20th century ethnography

• Arms and armour


The building has been maintained to a high standardby the City Council, with a long-term programme ofroof renewal being undertaken since the 1980s.However, services which require intrusive work, i.e.renewal of electrical services, have been deferred tothe point where they are urgent. Since 1901, asignificant number of additions have been made tothe interior, interfering with the flow of visitors, andmarring the appearance of the building.

Research makes it clear that while people love theexhibits on display and the building itself, the overall

7CHAPTER Venue Development Strategy


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impression is of a run-down service, which givesvisitors little support in finding their way round thebuilding or in learning about the collection. Internalaccess is poor, to the extent that as many as 70% ofvisitors do not go upstairs, where the main artcollection is on display.


Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is the subject ofa £25 million major refurbishment and redisplayproject with major funding bids currently being madeto GCC’s capital programme, the Heritage LotteryFund (HLF) and the West of Scotland EuropeanFunding Programme which started in 2000. Stage 1approval has been secured for a Heritage LotteryFund grant of £8.6 million towards the KelvingroveNew Century Project.Assuming the total fundingpackage is secured, the works should commence in2002 and be complete for re-opening at the end of2002 or early 2003. It is anticipated that the projectwill increase the number of visitors by 23% (258,000in total), the amount of display space by 35% and thenumber of objects on display by 50%.The project willalso secure a significant improvement to visitorservices such as cafés, shops, toilets and educationallearning facilities.

7 3 4 THE BUILDING

Modernising the heating and air-handling system isanother key feature.The other main elements of thebuilding strategy are concerned with restoring theinterior to as near its 1901 condition as possible,increasing the amount of display space, rationalisingthe location of displays vis-à-vis other visitor services,and improving internal access to 21st centurystandards. Specifically this involves:

• Removing offices and other accretions added since1901. Moving non-display functions, including thecafé, the education room and the conference room,to the basement

• Removing all barriers to circulation on the groundand first floor

• Introducing a new public entrance to the“basement”, which is at ground level at the Parkside of the building

• Introducing a new gallery and other visitor facilitiesto the basement

• Introducing new lifts from the basement to theground floor, at the new entrance, and from thebasement to the ground and first floor, in thecorners of the east and west wings.The latter will

use redundant light wells and have a minimumimpact on the appearance of the building.

• Creation of a two-storey shop at basement andground floor levels and close to the publicentrances at the north end of the building.

With regard to the building infrastructure, it shouldbe noted that whilst the project will comprehensivelyaddress the buildings’ electrical and environmentalservices, it only involves partial roof renewal and theremaining original roof structure will require acontinuing maintenance and renewal programme.Thesame applies to repairs to the metal windows.

7 3 5 THE DISPLAYS

The objective is to create new displays using aflexible intellectual framework and display systemwhich will increase the number of objects and be ableto evolve with changing public interests, reducing theneed for future capital investment.

This will be achieved by:-

• Building on the museum’s tradition as a social place,owned by the people of Glasgow

• Working with the strengths of the collection andstaff expertise to communicate across time andcultural diversity to inspire people of all ages tolearn and understand more about themselves andthe world we live in

• Connecting to the lives of the city’s multi-culturalaudience by being flexible and inclusive to create agenuinely visitor-centred museum

• Restoring the building to as near its originalcondition as possible and introducing new displaysin ways which respect the architecture

• Reducing the proportion of the building devoted tofunctions which can be carried out elsewhere andmaximising the space devoted to access

7 3 6 THE PARK

The proposals will enhance the park landscape in theimmediate vicinity of the building and relocate theexisting car park, thus removing the conflict betweenpedestrian and vehicular access and creating a civicspace at the north entrance.These proposals arebeing developed in collaboration with Land Servicesand take into account the wider proposals for therefurbishment of Kelvingrove Park and the pedestrianbridge across the river Kelvin to the University.



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7 4 MUSEUM OF TRANSPORT

7 4 1 INTRODUCTION

The Museum of Transport was established in theobsolete tramway workshops in Albert Drive in 1963,and moved to its current site in Kelvin Hall in 1988. Ithouses collections of national importance in anumber of areas, including shipbuilding, steamlocomotives, trams, Scottish motor cars, bicycles and motorcycles.

It is the most visited museum of transport in the UK,and the second most popular museum in Glasgow,regularly attracting between 400,000 and 500,000visitors per annum. It deals with the social andtechnical history of transport in Scotland in generaland Glasgow in particular. For many local people themuseum provides touchstones of reminiscence andidentity.The Museum of Transport has great untappedpotential for appealing to many tourists for whom artis not their prime or only interest.


The building provides limited and cramped space forthe collection, which is not seen to best advantage.The heating system is shared with Kelvin HallInternational Sports Arena, and its restricted controlsover temperature and humidity is resulting in damageto the collection, especially to the wooden parts oftrams and early Scottish cars.

A wide variety of visitors reflects the diverse visitorexperience on offer, while the percentage of visitorsfrom groups C2, D and E is the highest of anymuseum in the city. Successful events programmesand new displays have led to substantial increases invisitor numbers in the past two years. Piecemealimprovements in displays have improved interpre-tation for some collections and successfully increasedvisits from families with young children. Othercollections remain, in effect, in open storage,accessible only to visitors with specialist knowledge.The front entrance to the Museum is not highlyvisible from Dumbarton Road and car parking spacecan be limited.The addition of a lift to the frontfaçade has considerably improved access for peoplewith disabilities, but signage is poor.


This museum needs a complete overhaul to reachmodern standards of interpretation, display andpreservation of its collection. Glasgow was a worldcentre of the Victorian industrial society which

produced the technology on display, and which inturn is related to the great design achievements ofGlasgow, from marine engines to Mackintosh chairs,from locomotives to Greek Thomson.The extremelypoor environmental conditions in this museum makeit a major investment priority for the service, particu-larly if taken in conjunction with the requirements ofKelvin Hall International Sports Arena.

A feasibility study has recently been completed by theCity Council Building Services’ architects inconjunction with Cultural and Leisure Services andDevelopment and Regeneration Services to assessthe options and costs for meeting Glasgow’s andScotland’s future requirements for staging majorindoor sporting events, and also the possibleconsequences for the Museum of Transport.

This study, along with opportunities that mightemerge from Glasgow Harbour Limited’s mixed-usedevelopment proposals for the north side of theRiver Clyde from Kelvinhaugh to Whiteinch, wouldtogether appear to present the following options forthe Museum of Transport:-

• The relocation of the Museum of Transport toGlasgow Harbour.

• The refurbishment of Kelvin Hall to house both animproved International Indoor Sports Arena and theMuseum of Transport at a possible cost of £20million, but with constraints on both the scale andeffectiveness of both the Arena and the Museum of Transport.

• The expansion of the Museum of Transport withinthe Kelvin Hall building and the relocation of thesporting uses, including the indoor athletics track, toa purpose-built building elsewhere, possibly theGlasgow Harbour development.

• An expansion of the Museum of Transport on eitherthe Kelvin Hall or Harbour site would provide anopportunity to rethink the museum and create avisitor attraction unique in Britain, which couldportray the industrial culture of the period c.1830to c.1960 in its full richness.While transport wouldbe strongly featured, it would be in a contextprovided by the design, decorative arts and costumeobjects of which Glasgow has internationallyimportant collections. The City Council favours theoption of relocation to Glasgow Harbour, subject tofurther investigation.

These options require to be investigated further inconjunction with Development and RegenerationServices, Glasgow Harbour Limited, sportscotlandand the Heritage Lottery Fund, with an assessment oflikely levels of commercial-sector, European andLottery funding.



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7 5 THE GALLERY OF MODERN ART

7 5 1 INTRODUCTION

The building, comprising an 18th Century Mansion towhich a 19th century exchange hall has been added,is one of the most important in Glasgow. From 1949to 1994, it housed the Stirling Library whichrelocated to premises in Miller Street in.The twoyear conversion programme to create the Gallery ofModern Art (GoMA) included the substantialrefurbishment of the building structure and services,funded by Glasgow City Council, the EuropeanRegional Development Fund and the Scottish Arts Council.


The Gallery of Modern Art houses an internationalcollection of challenging but accessible art owned bythe city, in a Category A listed building in the heart ofthe city centre. GoMA’s main aim is to encourageinterest in and enjoyment of visual art for all sectorsof the community, but particularly young people andpeople perceived as being outside or who do not feelat home in the world of contemporary fine art.More specific objectives are:-

• To display and interpret a wide range of the bestcontemporary art, particularly that owned by theCity, to local, national and international audiences.

• To provide access to contemporary art, particularlyfor socially excluded groups.

• To provide an international-quality visitor attractionwhich contributes to Glasgow’s reputation as a cityof culture, promoting tourism and inwardinvestment.

• To provide an international platform for contem-porary artists working in Glasgow.

GoMA has established itself as a centre for contem-porary art which provides access for local, nationaland international audiences and a platform forcontemporary artists working in Glasgow.

It houses a diverse collection of mostly representa-tional works from the past 20 years, focusing onScottish art in particular, but also work from as farafield as Russia,Australia and Irian Jaya.

Most visitors find it stimulating and enjoy the varietyof work on show - even if they don’t like everythingon display.Though much of the work may not betechnically challenging, it can be emotionallydemanding. Unusually unintimidating for a modern artgallery, GoMA attracts a wide range of visitors withoverall visitor numbers of over 500,000 a year.


The Collection, in terms of purchases by the City, ofloans of specific works of art, and of temporaryexhibitions, could show a broader range of contem-porary art, especially in relation to recentdevelopments in Glasgow and Scotland. Interpretationof the works on display, through labels and graphics,could also be improved.


The restoration of the full income amount from theContemporary Art Fund (from the current level ofc.£100,000 per annum, to c.£200,000 per annum)would enable GoMA to achieve its objective ofsustaining an international profile. Linked to collectionpolicy, GoMA will display art in all categories the Cityacquires.Active acquisition is needed to enable morefrequent changes to long-term displays.Additionalrevenue for temporary exhibitions would enableGoMA to mount shows which would attract nationaland international audiences as well as local andregional visitors.

The creation of an integrated Cultural and LeisureServices has brought the opportunity to re-examinethe range of services and target audiences in GoMA.This has led to the development of proposals for thesensitive integration of a visual art learning andinformation centre and community lending libraryservice in the building.As well as providing additionalservices in a convenient location for general visitorsand targeting art and art history students at all levels,this will provide learning support for members of thepublic who are inspired to find out more about theworks on display. In physical terms, and in the light ofwhat has been learned from 5 years’ experience ofrunning the art gallery, this may mean a reconfigu-ration of other support services such as catering and retail.

Proposals developed for Royal Exchange Square bythe City Council, City Centre Partnership, ScottishEnterprise Glasgow and Strathclyde Police to addressissues of graffiti, safety and cleanliness and provideopportunities for the display of public art werepresented to the Cultural and Leisure ServicesCommittee in December 2000.



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7 6 THE PEOPLE’S PALACE AND WINTER GARDENS

7 6 1 INTRODUCTION

This is Glasgow’s local social history museum, aCategory A listed building, set in the historic GlasgowGreen. Originally housing a gallery for temporaryexhibitions and a reading room, it gradually evolvedinto the city’s local history museum.The combinationof the museum and the Winter Gardens gives it avery special character, which enables it to attract anaverage of over 400,000 visitors a year. Its socialhistory collections of Glasgow, including Women’sSuffrage and Labour History (especially Trades UnionBanners), are of national importance.

The major regeneration of Glasgow Green, a £10 million parkland renewal project supported by an£8 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant, will have asignificant impact on the People’s Palace and WinterGardens. Proposals for the immediate surroundingsinclude a major outdoor events area, a moredeveloped formal landscape, the relocation of theDoulton Fountain to the front of the People’s Palaceand improved vehicular and pedestrian access. Thequality of amenities in the area, combined with themuseum and Winter Gardens being within 15minutes’ walk of the main shopping centre, suggeststhat the People’s Palace should be treated as on the edge of the city centre, as well as being an East End facility.


The People’s Palace was substantially refurbished in1995 and 1998 with the support of Heritage LotteryFunding, European Regional Development Funding(ERDF), the Wolfson Foundation and STB.Theassociated Winter Gardens has just completed acomprehensive refurbishment following a recent fire,with new catering facilities and upgraded event spaceand horticultural planting areas. Both facilities comeunder the overall responsibility of Cultural andLeisure Services with the horticultural areas of theWinter Gardens managed by Land Services.This newmanagement arrangement should provide theopportunity for a more integrated approach to theprogramming of events and exhibitions and thedevelopment and promotion of retail and catering opportunities.

Recently refurbished to a high standard, the displaysexplore themes from the last 250 years of Glasgow’shistory.The ground and first floors are designed to bechild and family friendly; the 3rd floor is more in-depth displays, though it also includes a variety of interactives.


The structure of the displays is thematic and cantherefore evolve with changes in public interest. From2003, one theme should be changed every two years.This would cost approximately £50,000 per change.

7 7 SCOTLAND STREET SCHOOLMUSEUM

7 7 1 INTRODUCTION

Scotland Street School Museum has two identities.Visitors come to see both a museum and an architec-turally significant building. Scotland Street is the onlymuseum showing the history of education in Scotlandand as such has the potential to become a nationalfocus for this subject. It could also tell the story ofthe many industries of world importance in theTradeston and Kinning Park area, and of thecommunities that grew up around them. It is aCategory A listed school building, designed byCharles Rennie Mackintosh, which means it is placedfirmly on the route of architectural and Mackintoshtrails around the city.


The current audience profile is already changingfollowing increased investment in temporary displays.In 1999, the Museum received over 98,000 visitors.Currently the building is very reliant on temporaryexhibitions to fill out the display areas.

Facilities for visitors are somewhat sparse, with onlytwo rooms devoted to permanent displays and fourperiod classrooms used largely for teaching purposes.There is no interpretation of the building or of therestored classrooms. One of the biggest visitorcomplaints is the lack of rooms open to the public.The Museum is poorly signposted from the local road system and local car parking provision needsupgrading to function properly in support of the venue.


The museum houses part of the City’s EducationCollection, with support material from this collectionfurnishing the restored period classrooms.There ispotential for far more of the Education collection togo out on display.



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New displays currently under development willinterpret the building itself in terms of itsarchitectural design, its local history and its localeducational history and thus integrate the twoaspects of the venue’s identity. Further investment isneeded, however, in new displays, interpretation ofthe collection, and in developing new interactivities.Further investment is also required for the adaptationof the historical interiors to allow good environ-mental display of the collection, and a morecomfortable environment, in both summer andwinter, as a visitor experience.

Many aspects of the main building, the courtyard,along with its visitor services, provision for disabledpeople, car parking arrangements, and quality ofdisplay and interpretation material require significantimprovement and investment. Funding from GlasgowCity Council matched by European RegionalDevelopment Funding will lead to improvements toaccess for disabled people, the reception and retailarea, and two of the principal display areas. Repairs tothe building infrastructure, especially the roof andwindows, and service issues will, however, remainlargely outstanding.A Conservation Plan needs to bedeveloped to guide the future improvement strategyfor the building.

The building has a unique asset to the rear: theplayground, which in itself could offer potential forthe development and provision of a unique visitorexperience. Increasing visitor numbers may enablecatering provision to be increased from vendingmachines to an appropriate café.

Scotland Street School Museum has the potential tobecome a museum that represents the forefront ofinterpretation, display and activity learning of a widerange of subjects for the young, whilst providingdisplays that provide an enjoyable, educational andreflective visit for all ages.

7 8 THE BURRELL COLLECTION

7 8 1 INTRODUCTION

The Burrell Collection opened in 1983 to house theCollection donated to the City by Sir William andLady Burrell in 1944.The Burrell Collection is one ofthe world’s great private collections now in publicownership. It has a strong Glasgow identity, as the giftof Sir William Burrell to his native city.

The Collection is housed in a purpose-designedbuilding which sets the objects against striking vistas

of the historic park in which it is situated, and is oneof the most important 20th century buildings inScotland. It was erected at a cost of £22 million(funded 50% by the City and 50% by the Scottish Office).


The Burrell Collection houses internationallyimportant collections of: Medieval art, includingpolychrome wood sculpture, tapestries, alabasters,stained glass and English oak furniture; Europeanpaintings, including masterworks by Cranach, Belliniand a major holding of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works; art from Ancient China, Egypt,Greece, and Rome; Near and Middle Eastern textilesand ceramics; modern sculpture including works byEpstein and Rodin. It is a very traditional art gallery,with minimal interpretation and educationalprovision. However, the relationship of objects withthe building and with the park outside is one of thehighlights of museum experiences in the UK.TheBurrell has not until recently had any relationshipwith its local communities, and for those dependenton public transport, access can be a difficulty; theLand Services bus from the park entrance providesonly a partial solution.


The displays need a complete rethink, and a morevaried approach in order to work for more diverseaudiences.This process has begun and will develop inthe same way as for Kelvingrove, i.e. involvingextensive consultation with existing users to ensurethat their loyalty is retained, that the quality of theirexperience is improved, while at the same time non-users will be involved in developing presentationapproaches that give them access to the meaning ofthe objects on display.A complete redisplay wouldcost in the region of £2 million.

7 8 4 THE BUILDING

The building infrastructure and services at the BurrellCollection are in urgent need of attention.Theprimary concern is water ingress through the flatroof areas which comprise approximately 60% of theroof area.The cost of replacing these roof areas isestimated at £1.75 million. Solutions are presentlybeing evaluated by Building Services, with thefavoured option being the construction of a low pitchwarm ventilated roof behind the existing parapet.

Other major building issues that require to be



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urgently addressed include the replacement of thebuilding management system (BMS) whose lifeexpectancy has long since expired but which isnevertheless crucial to maintaining the stringentsecurity, alarm and environmental conditions andkeeping the high energy costs of the building tomanageable levels.

The third major area of concern is the glazing andthe failure of the mechanical blind system since theopening of the building, resulting in excessive heatbuild-up which is a particular problem for visitorsusing the café and restaurant area.The introductionof better UV protection along, possibly, with a morelocalised blind system for that part of the buildingshould improve the situation considerably.

The approximate combined cost of addressing theabove issues along with items of strategic plantreplacement, upgrading visitor services, particularly inrespect of disabled provision and the foyer and retailareas, and strategic improvements to display andexhibition areas is likely to be in the region of £4 to £5 million.

7 8 5 OPTIONS FOR ALTERNATIVEMANAGEMENT

It may be possible to establish a partnershiparrangement for the future management of theBurrell Collection with The National Trust forScotland, on the basis of a service level agreementwhich ensured that Council objectives were met.Themain benefit, apart from developing partnershiparrangements which would benefit marketing, wouldbe savings on non-domestic rates.

The future management options for the BurrellCollection will be considered as part of a major BestValue Review of Pollok Estate and Pollok Park whichis being lead by Development and Regeneration Services.

7 9 ST MUNGO’S MUSEUM OFRELIGIOUS LIFE AND ART

7 9 1 INTRODUCTION

This is a unique venue which explores the religions ofthe world and Scotland through displays which are ofthe highest aesthetic quality, as well as providinginterpretation of the meaning of the wide range ofobjects. In line with the City Council’s key objectivesof creating a vibrant multicultural city, it aims topromote understanding between people of differentfaiths and none.The building is relatively new, opening

in 1993. It was built in a Scottish Baronial revivalstyle, designed to echo that of the original Bishop’sPalace, part of whose site it now occupies. Originallyintended to function as a visitor centre for theCathedral, the fundraising programme faltered andthe City stepped in with a £2.4 million rescuepackage.This involved conversion of most of thebuilding to a museum, with a large part of thebasement area allocated for use free of charge by theSociety of Friends of Glasgow Cathedral. Office spaceis provided also free of charge for the Scottish InterFaith Council, an inter-faith agency which includeswithin its membership all the major faiths and mostof the local inter-faith associations and inter-faithinstitutions in Scotland.


The collections are drawn from the entire range ofGlasgow’s fine and decorative art, Scottish andGlasgow history, ancient civilisations and ethnographiccollections.Visitor comments are overwhelminglypositive and the museum attracts over 150,000visitors per year.


The location on a busy road junction makes access bycar and pedestrians difficult, and directional signagefrom the City Centre is needed. Co-ordinatedpromotion of the whole of the Cathedral Precinct asa visitor destination, including the Cathedral, theNecropolis, the Barony Hall, Provands Lordship aswell as St Mungo’s, would realise the potential of thisarea to contribute to tourism and the economicregeneration of the city.


The Scottish Gallery needs to redisplayed, as this hasproved least satisfactory.The periodic changes in thethemes shown in the Life Gallery would providevariety for repeat visitors.

7 9 5 ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENTARRANGEMENTS

Discussions with Historic Scotland are ongoing toinvestigate alternative options for management/partnerships for St Mungo’s, in conjunction withProvands Lordship and the Cathedral.This proposalwould be in line with the responses emerging fromthe public consultation exercise where there has



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been significant representation from a range ofreligious groups and ethnic-minority communitygroups to retain St Mungo’s Museum.

7 10 PROVANDS LORDSHIP

7 10 1 INTRODUCTION

This Category A listed dwelling house dating from1471 is one of the most important medieval buildingsin the west of Scotland. It was originally built as partof St Nicholas’ Hospital by Bishop Andrew Muirheadand was later acquired by the prebendary ofBarlanark and used as a manse.The building has beenclosed since March 1998 due to structural problems.These are currently being addressed throughGlasgow City Council’s capital programme involvingstabilisation works to the south-west gable wall ofthe building.The collections acquired with ProvandsLordship were mainly material relating to EarlyGlasgow and early Scottish furniture.


When the museum was open, the displays provided avery atmospheric experience of a medieval interiorbut interpretation of the building and its relationshipwith the Cathedral was basic.The buildingnonetheless attracted around 100,000 visits a year.

In 1997, it had a medicinal garden added, in whichgrotesque heads from the 18th century Tontine hotelhave been displayed. It was named the St NicholasGarden after the patron saint of the Hospital ofwhich Provands Lordship was originally a part.


Further funding will be required once the currentworks are complete, for the development of aConservation Plan for the building and for its re-display. Provands Lordship is the appropriate venue totell the story of Glasgow from earliest times toc.1750, when the People’s Palace takes over.Acomplete redisplay would cost in the region of£250,000.The city has extensive archaeologicalcollections which complement the building.

7 10 4 ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENTARRANGEMENT

Provands Lordship is one of the most importantmedieval buildings in the West of Scotland, andHistoric Scotland may be interested in managing it.

This would not exclude developing the interpretationas outlined in the paragraph above.

7 11 POLLOK HOUSE

7 11 1 INTRODUCTION

Built between 1748 and 1752, this Palladian mansionwas extended in the early 20th century. It was thehome of the Maxwells of Pollok until it waspresented to the City in 1966. As a result ofreductions in the City Council’s budget the Housewas leased to the National Trust in 1998. It housesone of the earliest and most important collections ofSpanish paintings in the UK, formed in the mid 19thcentury by Sir William Stirling Maxwell, along withfurniture, ceramics, glass and silver, as well as otherpaintings, including important works by William Blake.

The management agreement involved an annualrevenue payment to the National Trust of approx-imately £140k to support their management costs onthe understanding that this payment is phased outover a period of time. Glasgow City Council (GCC)is currently negotiating with the National Trust towithdraw that payment and finalise a 25-year leasewith the Trust.


The National Trust have developed the interior toconvey how the building would have looked in the1920s, attempting to recreate the feeling of a lived-inhouse rather than a picture gallery.The National Trusthave introduced entrance charges during the peaksummer period but entry remains free during theremaining months of the year.

The lease makes GCC responsible for the repair,maintenance and capital improvements to thebuilding.The National Trust have secured a fundingpackage including a capital contribution of £73,000from GCC to carry out essential building anddisabled access improvements to the House.

7 11 3 WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED WITHADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The adjacent buildings, including an A listed courtyardand a very well preserved sawmill, also A listed, are ina poor state of repair and will require substantialinvestment if they are to survive.

Pollok House will be considered as part of a majorBest Value Review of Pollok Estate and Pollok Parkwhich is being lead by Development andRegeneration Services.



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7 12 THE MCLELLAN GALLERIES

7 12 1 INTRODUCTION

The McLellan Galleries re-opened in 1990 following a£3 million restoration, changing it from a generaltemporary exhibition space housing everything fromtrade shows to model railway exhibitions, to whatwas then the largest high-quality, air-conditioned,temporary exhibition space outside of London.Theinterior of the building is Category A listed.A flagshipproject of the Year of Culture, the Galleries wereintended to be a high-profile venue that would attractinternational touring art exhibitions. Between 1990and 1997 the Galleries were programmed byGlasgow Museums with a mixture of touring andinternally produced exhibitions. Successive cuts inrevenue budgets and staffing levels have meant that ithas not been possible to sustain this, and since 1998the Galleries have been let to external exhibitionorganisers, including the Centre for ContemporaryArts (CCA) and the 1999 Festival of Architecture andDesign.The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art hastraditionally held its annual exhibition in the McLellan Galleries.

There is substantial evidence that the Mackintoshexhibition had a significant impact on overseasvisitors to the city.This also demonstrated that onlyin the case of exhibitions with an exceptionally wideappeal and substantial marketing resources(Mackintosh was marketed as the centrepiece of theYear of the Visual Arts) can the gallery overcome thelow profile of the entrance and the unwelcomingcorridor, and the impressive but to many dauntingstaircases to the first-floor galleries. Specialistexhibitions without the budgets for television andinternational marketing promotion achieved very low audiences.

The basic costs of keeping the building open (rates,services and customer care staff) is c.£200,000 a year.Glasgow has failed to secure a place on the inter-national circuit for blockbuster art exhibitions, andthe costs of in-house production are substantial; thesix most visited exhibitions since 1990 cost over£300,000 on average to produce, with the two topperformers (Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Homeof the Brave) costing an average of £690,000.Theseare cash costs and do not take into accountsubstantial investment of curatorial, conservation andother staff time. It seems extremely unlikely, even ifthe McLellan could play a significant role in the City’sExhibition strategy, that such sums could be securedon a sustainable basis.

7 12 2 OPTIONS

Following the termination of the CCA’s short-termtenure in 2001, the McLellan Galleries could providean exhibition space for key paintings from Kelvingroveduring its period of refurbishment and modernisation,although this would incur a significant cost. In termsof its longer-term future, it is recommended that anappraisal of all possible options be undertaken,including possible partnerships with the NationalGalleries of Scotland and more commercially-orientated alternative uses.

7 13 MARTYRS’ SCHOOL

7 13 1 INTRODUCTION

The Mackintosh-designed building was taken over in 1997 by the then Museums and GalleriesDepartment, with the intention of using it to houseconservation studios and the Open Museum. Cuts inconservation staff and the location of the OpenMuseum in Scotland Street School have meant thatonly one floor of the building is now occupied by Museums.

7 13 2 OPTIONS

The area of the City in which Martyrs’ School issituated, close to the City Centre and M8, theCathedral, St Mungo’s Museum and ProvandsLordship, has been identified as an important area forregeneration and development. Martyrs’ School ispotentially a valuable building and the remaining twovacant floors could be let for sympathetic purposes.In the medium term, assuming the completion ofPhase II of the Heritage Collections Centre includingconservation studios, the building could be fullyreleased for sympathetic commercial purposes.

7 14 MAINTENANCE STRATEGY

7 14 1 MAINTENANCE POLICYFRAMEWORK

The policy framework for the management andmaintenance of the venues run by the City includesthe regulations relating to Listed Buildings, BuildingControl, Health and Safety, and the DisabilityDiscrimination Act.



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Cultural and Leisure Services have introduced thefollowing approach to maintenance for the service:-

• The integration of museums and other mergingdepartments’ budgets into a single budget.

• The transfer of overall budget responsibility toCultural and Leisure Services (Service Support,Buildings Development and Projects).

• The harmonisation of the way day-to-day repairsare requested, authorised and implemented acrossthe service.

• Greater harmonisation of Building ManagementSystems (BMS), an on-going programme for theirreplacement with more efficient systems, andgreater use of existing in-house BMS expertisewhich was previously dedicated to the Leisure partof the Service only.This should in the long-termreduce energy costs.

• The setting up of systems of financial checks andbalances to improve monitoring and accountabilityalong with on-site progress monitoring by Culturaland Leisure Services Technical Support Officers.

• Holding regular meetings between Cultural andLeisure Services and other Council Servicesincluding Building Services, Development andRegeneration Services and Financial Services to deal with:-- Progress of the work- Costs of repairs- Standards of workmanship- Insurance Matters- Ongoing management of Cultural and Leisure

Services’ buildings portfolio.

• The setting up of a cross-service Cultural andLeisure Services Core Property Group.

• Cultural and Leisure Services Forward Planning hasa new dedicated group of technical staff, who dealwith buildings from their inception, through theirconstruction, and finally their continuingmaintenance requirements, while they are in use byCultural and Leisure Services.

7 14 3 PLANNED MAINTENANCE ANDSTATUTORY INSPECTIONS

The presentation of buildings and the need to satisfystatutory regulations are two key maintenance issues.

A programme of external repainting, along withgutter cleaning, drain cleaning and roof inspectionsfor museum properties, is to be introduced.

A rolling programme of internal repainting willrecommence with the initial priorities being GoMA,the Burrell Collection and St Mungo’s.The mostcrucial areas requiring repainting during the next fewyears will be identified for each of these facilities.

A major priority for the maintenance budget will bethe need to meet statutory requirements forelectrical, heating and ventilation installations.


The current level of maintenance budgets available toCLS for museums (£375,000 per annum) is notsufficient to fully address on a planned basis thereplacement of major plant and the renewal ofbuilding fabric.When these issues arise, the service isusually reliant on a decreasing non-housing capitalprogramme to secure the necessary funding.


The maintenance of safe, accessible, energy-efficientbuildings and the quality of presentation of publicareas required to meet 5-star Tourist Board gradingwould require an additional spend of approximately£300,000 per annum.



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8 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter sets out what the Core Group believesis the overwhelming case for additional staff forGlasgow Museums. The service expanded the rangeof its facilities significantly during the 1990s, opening anew Museum of Religion (1993) and a Gallery ofModern Art (1996), with an increase of only 3curatorial and no conservation or technical staff. Infinancial years 1996/97 and 1997/98 the Museums andGalleries Service took budget cuts totalling£2,652,700, and the loss of over 100 staff.The majorareas of job loss were as follows:

Museum Assistants 61.5

Other Corporate Services 6

Curatorial 9

Conservators 8

Other Conservation and Registration Staff 2

Design Department 18

Total 104.5

This reduction in the number of Museum Assistantswas achieved by out-sourcing cleaning (at a cost of£390,000 per annum), and changing the rota patternin a way which has made staff training in the vital areaof customer care very difficult and expensive toorganise.

Separately, the Education Department, which fundsthe Museum Education Service, reduced the numberof professional and technical staff from 14 to 1 post.Despite these cuts, Glasgow Museums remains instaffing, as well as in other terms, the largestmunicipal museums service in the UK.

8 2 POLICY FRAMEWORK

There is no national or local policy on theappropriate level of staffing or which determines thestructure of museums in general or local authoritymuseums in particular.The Registration Schemeadministered by the former Museums and GalleriesCommission defines minimum standards, especiallyfor collections care.Though Glasgow has sustained itsRegistered Status, with current staffing levels it hasdone so with considerable difficulty. It is also clearthat the importance of the collection requiresachieving more than minimum standards.Benchmarking with comparable institutions givessome indication of current best practice (see CurrentProvision below). Staffing issues were addressed interms of Best Value through a Staffing Task Groupwhich invited submissions in writing and orally fromall staff. Most staff sections, including MuseumManagement, made submissions.The Staffing Task

Group reported its key findings to the Best ValueCore Group.These were:

• the museums are seriously understaffed in key areasrequired to deliver Council objectives

• the overall structure needs to be revised toimprove planning, integration and communication.

Acknowledging the difficulties in retaining RegisteredStatus and in obtaining recognition for Glasgow’s casefor the national status of its collections and museumservices, and in the light, furthermore, of both thebenchmarking with comparible organisations and theviews of the Open Space workshop, the Core Groupsupported the Museum Management’s assessment ofthe numbers and specialisms of staff which would be required to achieve minimum sustainable service levels.

The City Council key objective to provide qualityservices and its commitment to corporate workingprovide clear principles on which museummanagement should be organised:

i) Clear lines of accountability and responsibility fordelivering targets in line with Council priorities sothat there is identifiable leadership for each venue.

ii) Clear lines of internal communication andalignment of all functions with Council andCultural and Leisure Services objectives.

iii) A clear point of contact for the public andexternal agencies for specialisms, especially inareas identified as priorities in the Review(Exhibitions, Collections Care and Management,Art, Local History, Natural History andTechnology).

The Core Group therefore recommends thefollowing policies:

POLICY OBJECTIVE 17

To increase staff strength and develop roles inthe following key areas: Education and Access;Curatorial; Conservation; Public Programming.

POLICY OBJECTIVE 18

To focus staff roles on achieving Councilpolicies, and to organise the structure so thatresponsibility for achieving City Councilobjectives is clear.

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8 3 STANDARDS AND FUTUREPROVISION

This section sets out Cultural and Leisure Services’management analysis of the existing staffarrangements and the changes which are required.The Core Group recommends that this analysisshould be the basis of a report to the Cultural andLeisure Services Committee, processed through thestandard consultative procedures of the City Council.

8 3 1 CONSERVATION

Glasgow spends 4.5% of its staffing budget onConservation staff, slightly above the local authorityaverage of 3.8%, though substantially less than theNationals’ average of 7.4%. Furthermore, NationalMuseums and Galleries also benefit from havingdedicated art/object handling teams, specialistbuildings and service managers, and dedicatedadministrative support, functions which in GlasgowMuseums require considerable input from theConservation section. Major capital developments(e.g. Kelvingrove, the Heritage Collections Centre andthe refurbishment of the Burrell Collection) requirevery substantial contributions from Conservation inorder to ensure that the buildings and servicesdeliver appropriate environmental and lightingconditions. Given the national importance ofGlasgow’s collections, this suggests under-investmentby about 50% in preserving the city’s heritage assets.Reinvestment in Conservation was identified ascrucial by the Open Space workshop on Collections Care.

8 3 2 EDUCATION

The UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport(DCMS) report on “Excellence in Nationally FundedMuseums and Galleries in England” suggests that 4.5%of a museum’s budget should be spent on Education.Even if this was applied to the staffing budget alone, itwould mean an expenditure of c.£300,000 oneducation staff, i.e. an additional 12 staff approxim-ately, which would bring the Museum EducationService back up to the level prior to budget cuts andcloser in line with the spend on Education by itsbenchmarking partners. Given the potential ofmuseums to contribute to education both in formalsettings and to lifelong learning, this has to be apriority for reinvestment. It was identified as essentialby the Open Space workshop on Access: Educationand Lifelong Learning.

8 3 3 CUSTOMER CARE AND SECURITY

As a percentage of staff numbers, Glasgow’s front-of-house staff, at 65% of the staff total, is substantiallyhigher than any of the other partners, and well abovethe overall average of 44.5%, and the Local Authorityaverage of 46%.This is partly due to the scale ofGlasgow Museums, but it is also due to the rotasystem, which means that the Service deploys only50% of front-of-house staff at any given time;benchmarking partners deploy up to 66%.The rota isalso inefficient and inflexible in dealing with cover forholidays and absence due to sickness. Security of thecollection is of paramount importance, and to ensurethat any changes in operational practices conformwith Best Practice, advice is being taken from theMuseums, Libraries and Archives Commission and theScottish Museums Council.

Front-of-house staff are the only museum staff thatmost members of the public meet, and they have avital role in ensuring that visitors have enjoyable andfruitful visits. Studies of visitors to museums andother attractions in the US show that the numberand quality of encounters with staff can greatlyenhance or spoil a visit.The Open Space workshopon Access, Social Inclusion and Lifelong Learningidentified the development of the Learning Assistantrole as a key priority, and the public consultationthrough the People’s Panel reinforced the importanceof friendly staff supporting visitor learning.

8 3 4 MANAGING THE COLLECTION ANDRELATED INFORMATION

Traditionally, local authority museums have put moreemphasis on public programming than inventory,cataloguing and publishing. In Glasgow there is a 100-year backlog of inventory and cataloguing, andonly very partial publication of the collection.

This imbalance needs to be redressed, and knowledgeabout the collection built up and made accessible.This is especially important given the greaterrecognition of the national importance of thecollections, and of the ways information technologycan facilitate information handling on a vast scale,delivering access to interested people anywhere inthe world, and 24 hours a day. The inventory is arequirement of Registration and of Audit, and theprovision of a catalogue is a fundamental prerequisitefor access: unless information is organised it cannotbe made available.A curatorial resource with theexpertise relating to important areas of the collectionneeds to be established.The Open Space workshopson Collections Care identified a city-wide audit ofcollections as a key priority.

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8 3 5 CURATORS

Curators who have specialist knowledge of aspects ofthe collection and the skills to research itsbackground are essential. Benchmarking suggests thatGlasgow has about 50% of the curators it requires.For example, Glasgow has less that half the numberof curatorial staff employed by the National Museumsand Galleries on Merseyside, which is probably themost similar institution, though with a less diversecollection than Glasgow’s.

8 3 6 STAFF DEVELOPMENT

In order to meet City Council objectives, all museumstaff need to become ever more responsive to citizenand visitor needs, and to work in partnership withother departments and with external organisations.Staff are also involved in major capital projects, mostnotably the refurbishment of Kelvingrove.All of theserequire continuous staff development.

8 3 7 ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANT AID

The Core Group cannot give enough emphasis to theover-riding importance of the City Council fundingthe resources needed to increase staffing levels.Glasgow Museums are perceived by the professionaland technical advisory bodies to the Heritage LotteryFund (HLF) to fall below the minimum staffing levelsof a museum service, in particular one which iscommitted to undertaking a £25 million capitalproject.The HLF has therefore made the £8.6 milliongrant for Kelvingrove conditional upon staffing levelsbeing increased by a total of 21 posts in the followingkey areas: Education and Access; Curatorial;Conservation, and Public Programming. If the Councilcannot achieve that level of increase, not only will theKelvingrove project fail, but the future of GlasgowMuseums as a museums service of acknowledgednational significance will be in doubt.

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8 4 CURRENT PROVISION:STAFFING AND STRUCTURE

The current structure of the Museums and Galleries Services comprises 328 staff who are organised into the following functional departments:

8 4 1 CURATORIAL (ART, HISTORY, SCIENCE AND OUTREACH CURATORS)

8 4 2 CREATIVE SERVICES

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Staff

1 Senior Curator, Creative Services (unfilled vacancy)1 Senior CS Officer8 x CS Officers12 CS Technicians (VBT)2 CST’s (Central projects) 1 CST (H&V)1 CST (Photo printer)1 Photo library administrator

Total 27

Key Functions

Design and produce 2- and 3-D elements of permanentdisplays and temporary exhibits (including Open Museum)Technical support for events and exhibitions in VenuesManagement of exhibition installation and deinstallationMaintain displays and exhibitionsExhibition and collectionPhotographyModel-making and taxidermyManage exhibition budgetsSpecify and procure design and material contractsMaintain Audio Visual and ICT elements of displays andexhibitions

Staff

1 Senior Curator, Communication and Research1 Senior Curator, Open Museum8.5 Grade 3 Curators14 Grade 1/2 Curators

Total: 24.5

2 Outreach Assistants

Key Functions

AcquisitionAdministrationBudget controlCataloguingCommunity leadership & liaisonEducationEventsFundraisingInventoryLong-term displaysOutreach (from venues and through Open Museum)Project leadershipPublic inquiriesPublicationsTemporary exhibitionsTrainingVolunteer management

The Open Museum has two Outreach Assistants whomanage the loan, delivery and collection of travellingexhibitions and handling kits - over 1,000 loans a year.

8 4 3 CONSERVATION AND COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT

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Functions

Overall co-ordination of Conservation and CollectionsManagement, especially input to major capital projects;Registration

ConservationManaging the section conservators and technicians.Operational responsibility for Paintings conservation.

Care of collections in store, on display, and in transit;quality/authenticity of object presentation; documentationof object condition and recording of all treatments.

Judgements of object condition with respect to preventiveconservation, presentation, stability and authenticity. Carryout treatments, recommend storage and display methods,assess the safety of transportation of objects and specifypacking and transportation methods.Assessing objectcondition for overseas loans.

Developing and maintaining disaster response plans for all sites.

Engage contractors, and manage all attendant workshopand health and safety matters.

Conservation Technicians provide assistance throughoutthe museums to maintain displays, operate and maintainvehicles in the transport collection, assist with pictureframe repairs, picture hanging, specialist mount making,cleaning and preparation of objects, and provide assistanceto conservation staff as required.

Collections ManagementKey functions: registration of collections, documentationstandards, inventory control, legal and insurance issues,inward and outward loans administration.

Manage all aspects of collections documentation, insurance,object movement, locations in store, display inventory,inward and outward loans, legal issues, import and export.Compliance with Council auditing and national guidelinesfor collections management.

Development of a computerised collections managementsystem to provide staff and the public with informationabout the collection.

Addressing the 100-year backlog of object accessioning andthe reconciliation and labelling of objects and object files.

Stores and Transport Manager: responsible for six StoresTechnicians, providing public access to collections in storeand transport service for the museum. Essentialmaintenance of stores, object handling. Packing and storesmaintenance is undertaken at four sites containing around1 million objects.

Staff Key

1 Manager, Conservation and Collections Management

1 Grade 3 Conservator

5 Grade 2 Conservators (Paper,Textiles, Organics,Inorganics, preventive conservation)

7 Conservation Technicians

1 Senior Collections Manager1 Assistant Collections Manager (documentation) AP4

2 Collections Officers (inventory) AP21 Collections Officer (documentation) AP23 Documentation Assistants GS3

1 Assistant Collections Officer (Loans) AP41 Collections Officer (loans) AP21 Clerical Assistant (loans) GS3

1 Stores and Transport Manager AP56 Stores Technicians TD1

8 4 5 EDUCATION

8 4 6 RETAIL, MARKETING AND VENUE HIRE

Staff costs for retail are included in the overall staffingbudget for museums, but they have not been includedin the retail balance sheets, i.e. retail has been seen asa service which generates some income rather thanas a commercial operation. Best Value principles oftransparency and accountability dictate that staffcosts should be factored into the retail accounts,which turns them from profitable into loss-making operations.

Marketing was centralised as part of the creation ofCultural and Leisure Services.The Venue Hire andCorporate Hospitality functions were transferred toDirect and Care Services early in 2001.

8 5 GLASGOW MUSEUMS: CURRENTDEPARTMENTAL ORGANISATION

Despite the difficulties of changing working practicesduring a period of cuts, staff have continued todeliver a service on existing commitments.Althoughstaff dedication results in very high standards beingachieved in specific projects, overall the quality ofservice is inevitably deteriorating, and the capacity tomanage capital redevelopments, such as KelvingroveNew Century Project, is not at a sustainable level.Every aspect of museum functioning is affected, fromcare of the collections to display maintenance, fromthe capacity to respond to public inquiries toprovision for school groups - in an environmentwhen public expectations are steadily increasing.

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Staff

Resource Manager

1 Resource Co-ordinator

12 Museum Officers39 Shift workers129 day Museum Assistants on 5 over 7 rota6 Janitors(25 Shop)4 shop supervisors

1 Resource Co-ordinator

5 Admin. Officers

9 Admin.Assistants

Key Functions

Management of all front-of-house and admin. staff Building maintenance liaisonSecurity

Typing, filing, copying, minute taking, mail,Telephones - operational and customer carePetty cash, cost control

Opening and closing buildingWelcoming and providing information for the publicReceptionSecurity during opening hoursSecurity during closed hoursSome porteringSome work with school groups/events

Typing, filing, copying, minute taking, mail,

Telephones - operational and customer care

Petty cash, cost control

Staff

1 Museum Education Officer (funded by Education Services)

1 Admin.Assistant (GS1)

Key Functions

Resources for Schools, for pre-and post-visit work

Booking service for school visits (c.70,000 childrenper annum)In-service training for teachersAdvice on making exhibitions educationally relevant

8 4 4 HOUSE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

Despite Glasgow investing £15.87 million net annuallyin its museums, the current strained position of theService reflects the scale of the city’s inheritance ofcollections and buildings, as well as the recentcreation of new museums. Glasgow’s cost per visitoris so much lower than that of its benchmarkingpartners, and than the Group for Large LocalAuthority Museums, being 23% and 28% lowerrespectively, which suggests under-investment ratherthan value for money.The net result is that Glasgow hasthe highest number of visitors per staff member ofany large municipal or national museum service in the UK.

As well as the serious shortages of staff, the presen-tations of staff to the Staffing Task Group made cleara number of structural problems which impededinternal communication and team working. Inparticular, a need for better integration ofConservation and the Venue Based Teams with othersections of the museums service was identified as apriority. Externally Glasgow Museums have a nationalreputation for innovative access projects and services(for example the Open Museum, Kidspace, and thetemporary exhibition Out of Sight Out of Mind,which have all won Gulbenkian Awards). However,lack of resources, and structures which failed tointegrate internal and visitor-focused services, havemeant that these could have contributed more to along-term audience and service development agenda.A new structure should be created which is moreintegrated and which will address and contribute toaudience and service development.

8 6 WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER BYDIVERTING EXISTING RESOURCES

Restructuring within Cultural and Leisure Services’Management Team has enabled the appointment of anew Museum Management Team comprising a VisitorServices Manager, a Specialist Services Manager andan Education and Access Manager.This managementteam will carry out a reorganisation of the service toachieve the priorities agreed by the Best ValueReview Core Group.These priorities aredetailed below.

8 6 1 PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

Public programming is an all-embracing term andrefers to all aspects of the visitor experience,including displays, exhibitions, events, catering, shopsetc.The management, co-ordination and qualitycontrol of this in individual venues should bestrengthened, by appointing one person to be incharge of that venue, to ensure that services andamenities meet agreed standards and targets.The

Head of Public Programming will represent the venuein appropriate city forums, and lead a team whichincludes:

• Curator(s) (one or more, depending on the scale ofthe venue): responsible for exhibitions, events,outreach, community liaison, public enquiries.

• Museum Officers/Supervisors (one per venue):responsible for managing Customer Care and thebuilding, Health and Safety and Security, deploymentof Museum Assistants and Learning Assistants.Thelatter will have the skills to lead workshops, deliverevents and manage groups.

• Education and Access Officer: responsible forforging links with educational and communityorganisations, and target audiences, to shape thepublic programme and the long-term displays tomeet their needs.Also responsible for directing thework of the Learning Assistants.There will be oneEducation and Access Officer based in each venue,though they are all likely to have specialist skills andexpertise which will be used across the service (e.g.in providing services for people with SpecialEducational Needs, Ethnic Minorities,5-14 pupils etc.).

• Public Programme Technicians: responsible forproviding technical support for all aspects of thepublic programme, especially workshops, events,exhibitions in the venue and community displays.

• The Open Museum could be considerably moreeffective with the addition of three outreachassistants, enabling it to provide a 7-day service, andrespond more effectively to community demands.

• The creation of approximately 40 posts of LearningAssistant who will facilitate learning in the galleries,especially by groups and families.

8 6 2 RESEARCH AND PROJECTSDEPARTMENT

This curatorial section would be responsible for:-

• Researching for major temporary exhibitions andgallery and museum redisplays

• Curatorial contributions to inventory

• Encouraging external scholars to work on, andgenerate knowledge about, the collection

• Providing leadership in Art, Natural History, History,Technology and heritage sectors in the city.

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8 6 3 EXHIBITION MAINTENANCE ANDPRODUCTION

This section would be responsible for:-

• Maintaining long-term displays and temporaryexhibitions in the venues.This work will be givenpriority over changing exhibitions, in order toachieve and sustain a high-quality public service.

• Managing the production, whether by in-house staffor external contractors, of temporary exhibitionsand major redisplays.

8 6 4 CONSERVATION AND COLLECTIONMANAGEMENT

The responsibility of this section would be to makethe collection and information related to it safelyaccessible, through exhibitions, loans, and access tostores and databases related to the objects.Strengthening the preventive conservation function isespecially important to ensure overall care of the collection.

8 7 THE CASE FOR ADDITIONAL STAFFING

Museum Management, strongly supported by theCore Group, propose that the following additionalstaff are the minimum required to achieve asustainable service which meets Council quality,educational and social inclusion agendas.

The Core Group supports Cultural andLeisure Services’ management view that theadditional staffing outlined above is needed. Itrecognises that it is for the Council to decide howthis necessary increase in staffing should be funded. Itrecommends Cultural and Leisure Services’management should continue to investigate acombination of efficiency savings, staff re-training andtransfers, and changes in staff pay and conditions, tosecure the reinvestment required to establish theadditional 21 key posts. Further discussions involvingthe Director of Personnel and AdministrationServices and appropriate trade unions will need totake place in line with standard Council procedures.

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Education andAccess

Curatorial

Public Programme

Conservation

Outputs

One based in each venue, developing access andcommunity networks.Managing projects with community groups.Developing Learning Assistants.Providing support across the service in his/herspecialism.

Leadership of relevant Art, History, NaturalHistory sectors in the city/community liaison.Project Management of Exhibitions and Events.Collections catalogues for print, web andeducational resources in specialist areas.

Publications of collections in paper and electronic form. Liaison with education to ensureall museum content available to schools. Contractswith publishers and authors. Liaison with GlasgowUniversity and other partners.

Technical support for events and exhibitionswithin each venue.

Improved storage conditions for collections,especially:Social historyTransport and technologyPaintingsMore objects prepared for display.

Additional Staff: Priority 1

7 Officers with specialisms in:5 - 14 curriculumSpecial Educational NeedsEthnic MinoritiesLifelong Learning

4 FTEs including 2 specialising in:Arms and ArmourTransportCostume and TextilesEnvironmental Sciences/OrientalCollections (2 x 0.5 posts)

Publications and Copyright Officer

5 Technicians

4 Staff specialising in:General ObjectsTransport and TechnologyPaintingsPreventive Conservation Manager

Administrative support: Once the details of the above structure have been agreed, the administrative staff needed tosupport it will be assessed and staff redeployed and increased if required. At least 4 additional administrative staff, ata cost of approximately £32,000, will be required.

Total Cost: £600,000

70

In addition it is proposed to create from existingresources a minimum of two marketing postsdedicated to and placed within the Museums Service.

8 8 WHAT COULD BE DONE WITHADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The Core Group believes that the potential ofGlasgow Museums to deliver national museum andgallery services of international quality could berealised only by the addition of approximately 30staff, at a cost of approximately £750,000.Additionalrevenue on this scale would require partnership withthe Scottish Executive which would specify theservices and hence the staff required.

The services the additional staff could deliver aredetailed below.

8 8 1 QUALITY ASSURANCE ANDEFFECTIVENESS

The measurement of the effectiveness of museumdisplays, exhibitions and events is essential to ensurebest value.This is a complex field in which dedicatedexpertise is required and the first priority for anyadditional resource would be a Visitor Studies Officerwho would devise measures to ensure that objectiveswere being met in line with Council policies.Theamount of information to be managed within themuseum is vast and there is also an immediaterequirement for 2 information services officers whocan manage the paper-based and digitised informationin the various systems.Total number of posts: 3.

8 8 2 CURATORIAL

The range of the collection which is not covered oris covered inadequately at present is still extensive,and additional staff are required for the followingareas: Scottish History, Scottish Archaeology, Non-European Ethnography, Glasgow History, NaturalHistory.Total number of posts: 6.

8 8 3 EDUCATION AND ACCESS

The 4 larger venues should have 2 education andaccess officers, while there is an urgent need for anexpert in the educational use of Information andCommunication Technologies.Total number ofposts: 5.

8 8 4 MARKETING AND FUNDRAISING

The capacity of the museums to deliver effectivepublic programmes to citizens (especially those atrisk of social exclusion) and to tourists and inwardinvestors is greatly dependent on its product beingeffectively marketed.A dedicated marketing resourcecomprising a minimum of two posts would greatlyimprove the effectiveness of this service.

The capacity of the museums to generatesponsorship and grants is virtually untapped andcould be greatly increased with additional staff,especially if there were an appropriate Foundationwhich would provide a tax-efficient vehicle fordonations and transparency in dedicating donationsto agreed purposes.A full-time dedicated fundraiserwould make strategic exploitation of the opportun-ities much more effective.Total number of posts: 3.

8 8 5 CONSERVATION AND COLLECTIONSMANAGEMENT

The committed, planned and possible capitaldevelopments over the next ten years (e.g. inKelvingrove, the Burrell Collection, the Museum ofTransport) all require extensive conservation input,to ensure that no aspect of the project, from theheating and ventilation system, to the kind ofmaterials from which cases are made, damages theobjects on display or in store. Staffing at middlemanagement/project management level thereforeneeds to be strengthened. In addition there is a needfor further specialist conservators (e.g. paintings,furniture/wood) and technicians (e.g. paintings/frames).Total number of posts: 6.

8 8 6 CREATIVE SERVICES

Given the increasing public expectation for compu-terised interactives and audio-visuals, and the proveneffectiveness of these devices in helping visitors of allkinds to learn, additional ICT/AV expertise is a veryhigh priority. Specialist three-dimensional design ofthe kind required for exhibitions is relatively scarce inthe marketplace and the service would benefit greatlyfrom having a third member of staff with these skills.Total number of posts: 3.

8 8 7 OPEN MUSEUM

The addition of a designer would enable the OpenMuseum to produce more exhibitions. There isvirtually unlimited demand for the outreach serviceprovided by the Open Museum, and expansion couldeasily involve doubling its current staff complement.Total number of posts: 4.

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8 8 8 VOLUNTEERS

A full-time staff member dedicated to developing thecontributions of volunteers to the museum servicewould enable the museum to provide a betterservice, as well as personal development opportu-nities for the individuals involved.Total number ofposts: 1.

8 9 KELVINGROVE NEW CENTURYPROJECT

The massive scale of this project is such that it willdominate the entire service for the next 3 years. Theadditional Conservation, Education and Access, andCuratorial staff are essential to make this feasible,though in addition a substantial number of temporaryproject staff, funded by the grants devoted to theproject, need to be recruited.The introduction ofextensive new technologies and the commitment tochange the displays systematically and regularly overtime will require an additional 10 staff approximatelyand materials/consumables costing a total of£300,000 per annum. It may be possible to makesome compensatory savings through the introductionof energy-efficient heating and ventilation systems aspart of the project.Total number of posts: 10.

8 10 HERITAGE COLLECTIONS CENTRE

The provision of public access to the collection aspart of Phase II of this development will require anadditional 5 staff, as well as running costs (rates,heating, electricity etc.), costing a total of c.£250,000per annum.Total number of posts: 5.

8 11 BURRELL REDEVELOPMENT

The urgency of the building problems means that thiscannot be deferred indefinitely. Despite othercommitments, the redevelopment of the displaysmust be done in tandem with the building redevel-opment, to benefit from the opportunities to makeimprovements. Curatorial, conservation, educationaland design resources for this will be difficult toallocate while Kelvingrove is being redeveloped,and a substantial element of these may need to be out-sourced.

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9 1 INTRODUCTION

Cultural and Leisure Services manages, cares for andprovides access to Glasgow’s great inheritance ofworld-class collections and magnificent museumbuildings. It does this through a complex set offunctions which include:-

• Management of 11 buildings, many of themCategory A listed

• Providing safe access to 8 buildings for 3 millionvisitors, through 361 days of the year

• Storage and information management for 1.2 million objects

• Active and Preventive Conservation for 1.2 million objects

• Educational Programmes for over 70,000 school children

• Events and activities

• Long-term displays covering a vast range ofhistorical, artistic and scientific subjects

• Outreach to communities outside the city centre,making over 1,000 loans of exhibitions and handlingkits each year

• Temporary exhibitions, both produced in-housebased on the city’s collections and brought to thecity from outside Scotland

• Providing a major element in the cultural and sociallife of the city which attracts tourists and businesstravellers, generating approximately £38 million inrevenue for Glasgow and Scotland

Revenue savings made in 1996/97 and 1997/98 havestretched the resources available to carry out thesetasks to the extent that the quality of service is notadequate and the organisation is not capable ofrealising its potential to meet Council targets foreducation, lifelong learning, social inclusion andeconomic regeneration. Forecasts of the foreseeablefuture of local government finance suggest that theCity Council will continue to be under stringentfinancial constraints.

The Best Value Core Group has worked on theassumption that the city wishes to continue toprovide a museum service, both as the custodian ofnationally important collections, and as a contributorto achieving a wide range of quality-of-life objectiveswithin the city. This report makes a strong case forsustaining and adding to the investment in museumsprecisely because of their capacity to address theseobjectives. Whatever resources are made available toGlasgow Museums however, they must be matched toa level of service quality which is sustainable in themedium to long term.

9 2 THE REDIRECTION OF EXISTING RESOURCES

The first crucial step is the creation of the additional21 posts identified as a priority by this Review, whichis a condition of the Heritage Lottery funding for theKelvingrove New Century Project. This could beachieved by the redirection of existing resourceswithin the service of about £600k as part ofefficiency savings across Cultural and LeisureServices, including the Staffing Review recommendedin Chapter 8.These additional posts are crucial to thecontinuance of the service and the development ofany form of education, lifelong learning, and socialinclusion programme.The Core Group recommendsthat the Council initiates consultative procedures onthe changes to the staffing structure proposed by theReview. However, the Core Group is strongly of theview that this first step alone will not safeguard andsustain Glasgow Museums and its collections for thefuture, or provide the quality of service and accessexpected in modern-day society.

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9 3 IMPROVEMENTS TO SERVICE REQUIRING ADDITIONAL REVENUE RESOURCES

The costed action plan recommended by this Best Value Review for improving the service beyond the resourcespresently available would require an additional revenue investment of around £2.2 million. This level of investmentwould enable the service to achieve the following:-

Note:A number of museums within the city responded to these calculations saying that the sums outlined for majorexhibitions and for education and access programmes are very modest.The £125,000 specified would provide seedfunding for one major exhibition annually.This is the minimum requirement if Glasgow is to sustain an internationalcultural profile. It would require a considerable fundraising effort to build on this investment.

9 4 CAPITAL INVESTMENT REQUIREMENTS

The following five-year Capital Investment Plan has been drawn up, based on the capital priorities identified forGlasgow Museums in Chapter 7,Venue Development Strategy.

This plan amounts to £36m of capital investment over the next 5 years at present-day prices, with a reasonableexpectation that 50% of this funding requirement could come from external partners, including the Heritage LotteryFund, Historic Scotland and the European Regional Development Fund.The cost of Phase II of the Heritage CollectionsCentre is yet to be determined.

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Improvements Requiring Revenue

Bring curatorial, conservation, technical, access and education, andmarketing staff numbers up to the level required to provide a serviceequivalent to national museum/gallery service. Glasgow Museums staffcould offer leadership within the city and west of Scotland for collabo-rative working in the areas of Collections Care and Management,Art,History, Natural History and History exhibitions and events.

Operate refurbished Kelvingrove as dynamic visitor-centred museum.

Operate Heritage Collections Centre as an educational resource with open access.

Touring Glasgow’s collections overseas, including set-up costs.

Building maintenance budget

Marketing budget

Collecting funds

Reallocation of donations to collecting

Operational budget for access and education staff

Major exhibitions budget

TOTAL (excluding touring set-up costs)

Additional Revenue Costs

£750,000

£300,000

£250,000

(£150,000) for two years.Self financing after this.

£325,000

£150,000

£200,000

£50,000

£175,000

£300,000

£2.5 million

Capital Investment Priorities 2001-2005

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - New Century Project

Heritage Collections Centre - Phase I

Scotland Street Museum - Phase II

The Burrell Collection - Refurbishment and redisplay

Year

2001-2003

2001-2002

2003-2004

2004-2005

Estimated Cost

£25 million

£5 million

£1 million

£5 million

In addition to this, the future of the Museum ofTransport along with the Kelvin Hall InternationalSports Arena needs to be considered (possibly as aPublic Private Partnership or a joint venturedevelopment involving the partners associated withThe Glasgow Harbour development proposals).

9 5 KPMG COMMISSION

The key question facing the City Council will be howto secure the additional revenue and capitalresources necessary to sustain and develop theservice in line with the policy direction set out in theReview, if that is what the Council decides to do.

The consultants KPMG were appointed in November1999 by the City Council in parallel with this BestValue Review to undertake a study to examine therange of options available to the Council for thefuture management, development and funding of itscultural and leisure facilities of “metropolitan status”,including Glasgow Museums, and to recommend astrategic way ahead. The consultants were specificallytasked to examine the following issues:-

• How the Council might develop a strategy, wheresuitable, for the transfer of managementarrangements to other appropriate public, non-profit-making bodies

• Whether the Council could develop options tomanage facilities through non-profit-making bodies

• Evaluating opportunities to develop Public PrivatePartnerships, including opportunities for propertydevelopment for facilities requiring significant capitalinvestment

• Considering and making recommendations on theinterim arrangements whilst longer-term optionsare put in place

• Assessing how the above strategies might assist orotherwise the Council’s case for a national fundingpartnership with Government in respect of theCity’s museums.

Cultural and Leisure Services Directorate havereported to the Core Group that KPMG havereported that there are three principal strategicoptions which the City Council could adopt.

9 5 1 OPTION ONE - STATUS QUO

The first option, the “status quo”, assumes that all themajor cultural and leisure facilities remain under thedirect operation and resourcing of the City Council.Within this option, Glasgow Museums wouldcontinue to operate within the existing revenuebudget and meet any annual revenue-saving

obligations set down by the Council whilst at thesame time planning and implementing major capitalinvestment. Without such investment, the annualmaintenance demands will increase significantly, whichwill result in on-going major revenue consequences.There will also be limited opportunities to increaseincome generation through retail, catering and venuehire. More specifically, under this option the servicewill be unable to make the level of investment instaffing required to meet the conditions of grant fromthe Heritage Lottery Fund, which would jeopardiseboth the Kelvingrove New Century Project and theHeritage Collections Centre. It will also result in theService failing to achieve its objectives to develop andpromote the role of Museums in addressing socialinclusion and lifelong learning. This option will alsoresult in a failure to achieve the Council’s 4%revenue saving target.

In conclusion, the “status quo” option will result in afurther deterioration of the quality of both serviceprovision and building maintenance, a position whichis non-sustainable in the longer term.

9 5 2 OPTION TWO

The second option focuses largely on thedevelopment of a new Foundation structure for themanagement of the City Council’s principle museumsand galleries with the perceived advantages of fund-raising from sponsors/donors and other third parties,and potential national non-domestic rates savings ofoperating the facilities within a charitable foundation.It was also considered to be a vehicle through whichcentral government could channel funding if itaccepted Glasgow’s case for national designatedstatus. Issues requiring further investigation inrespect of the Foundation include the degree andextent to which Council management and controlcan be retained, the degree to which the assets(buildings) need to be transferred, and the ability todemonstrate to the Financial Intermediaries ClaimsOffice (FICO) the “independence” of the charitableorganisation. Option II also proposed a Public PrivatePartnership arrangement to secure the capitalinvestment required for the Mitchell Library, KelvinHall International Sports Arena and Museum ofTransport, and the transfer and disposal of somecultural facilities which in respect of this Reviewincluded Martyrs’ School and McLellan Galleries.

9 5 3 OPTION THREE

The third option focuses on most of the Council’sprinciple cultural and museum facilities continuing tobe directly operated by the City Council but with an



75

expanded set of proposals for the transfer anddisposal of other facilities. It also proposes theestablishment of a Foundation structure based onservices as opposed to venues, the benefits beingfundraising from trusts and foundations and theprovision of a vehicle through which centralgovernment funds could be directed for servicing thenationally important aspects of the collection, forexample research, conservation, publications andacquisitions.The Glasgow Art Foundation could alsoserve as the vehicle for the purchase of works andincorporate the Contemporary Art Fund and thePurchase Fund.The final aspect of this option is arepeat of the Public Private Partnership proposalsmentioned within KPMG’s second option.

9 5 4 CORE GROUP’S VIEW OF KPMG OPTIONS

It is not within the Core Group’s remit to give adetailed view on the recommendations in the KPMGreport. It is in any case more appropriate for the fullKPMG report proposals to be debated more widely,along with other views for final assessment anddecision by the Council. However, the Core Groupdoes offer the following general considerations:-

i) The Core Group concurs with KPMG’s view thatthe present arrangements for Glasgow Museumsare unsustainable in the medium term.

ii) The second option, which amounts to transferringGlasgow Museums to an independent body,presents enormous risks and is full of uncertainty.The Council should not contemplate it unless allother solutions have been explored exhaustively.

ii) The third option is in line with the Core Group’sown thinking, which is that the Council faces anumber of different problems in turning roundGlasgow Museums and each of them requires apragmatic solution. It is the Core Group’s viewthat the following proposals should be explored bythe Council to assess their costs and benefits:

a) Provands Lordship - retain, or transfer to Historic Scotland

b) Burrell Collection - retain, or transfermanagement to the Burrell Trustees, or to theNational Trust, which currently manages Pollok House

c) Martyrs’ School - retain, or followingdevelopment of Heritage Collections Centre,release for commercial use

d) St Mungo’s - retain, or close museum andtransfer the building to the Friends of GlasgowCathedral who would develop the building as

originally intended, as a visitor centre for theCathedral and potentially Provands Lordship

e) McLellan Galleries - retain, or following anoptions appraisal for the Council, eitherrelinquish the venue for alternative use ormaintain as an exhibition venue under different management.

A number of these facilities received grants from theEuropean Regional Development Fund, the ScottishTourist Board and other funding bodies.Any changein their status would need to take the conditions ofthese grants into account.

9 6 ADDITIONAL REVENUE RESOURCES

The following outlines what the Core Group believesmight realistically be achieved from within CityCouncil resources and third-party donations,sponsorship and commercial income.

9 6 1 CITY COUNCIL

In view of the present financial climate, the CoreGroup anticipates that the City Council will berestricted in its ability to find additional revenueresources for Glasgow Museums.The proposals setout in KPMG’s third option and outlined specificallyin 9.5.4 above could, however, if implemented in full,yield over 2 years a revenue saving of about £1m; butclearly there are a number of issues to beinvestigated.The City Council will need to decide theextent to which the options for transfer and releasecan be pursued and how much of the consequentrevenue savings can be made available forreinvestment in the Museums Service.

9 6 2 THIRD-PARTY DONATIONS,SPONSORSHIP AND COMMERCIAL INCOME

The proposal for a non-facility-based foundationwould provide a vehicle for third-party donations andsponsorship to support the purchase of works andthe development of services. It is impossible,however, to predict what impact this new proposedvehicle would have on the level of third-party financialcontributions for the development of the service. It istherefore difficult at this stage to use this as any basisfor future financial planning as such funding tends tobe project-based and not consistent revenue.

With regards to income from retail, catering andvenue hire, and banqueting, it is clear from Chapter 6on Visitor Services that the service is under-performing. In respect of retail, when staffing costs

9CHAPTER Resources and Future Funding


76

are taken into account, the service made a net loss of£250k in 1999/2000.The budget for 2000/2001, evenwith a budget adjustment to a realistic level ofturnover, assumes a significant improvement inperformance. In the short term, without more radicalchange to the way in which retail and cateringservices are provided, not much more can beexpected in terms of improvement in the netexpenditure position other than to bring actualperformance in line with the new budget position.The conclusions and recommendations of the currentconsultancy studies regarding retail and catering werepresented as part of the final Review report toCouncil following the consultation period.



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10 1 A NATIONAL FUNDINGFRAMEWORK

A fundamental issue for Scotland over the nextdecade is the future of cultural provision.Theprinciples of the Partnership Agreement betweenLabour and the Liberal Democrats, which appears tohave attracted cross-party support, include theproposition that “arts and culture have a central rolein shaping a sense of community and civic pride in thenew Scotland.”

The Partnership Agreement also contained a clearcommitment that the coalition would “invest inScotland’s diverse cultural life and heritage, and woulddevelop a National Cultural Strategy”.

At the same time as Glasgow City Council has beenaddressing the Best Value Review, the ScottishExecutive has been consulting on the content of aNational Cultural Strategy.The overwhelmingmajority of responses have highlighted anomalies andthe lack of a strategic approach to museum provisionin Scotland. Respondents have urged a fundamentalreview of the unsustainable status quo. In particular,respondents have highlighted the need to addressstructural anomalies and the imbalance of currentfunding arrangements.

Within a new national framework, the Scottish Museums Council in particular has argued for amanaged restructuring which aims:-

• “to secure the future of nationally importantcollections which are not currently the responsi-bility of the National Museums or National Galleries.

• to ensure a stable revenue funding base for anetwork of museums, including non-nationalmuseums as well as the National Museums andNational Galleries.”

A range of other bodies, including COSLA, haveargued that there is a need to address fundamentalanomalies and to devise new funding arrangements.Many of the respondents to the National CulturalStrategy recognised the importance of the GlasgowMuseums collection.Against this background, theCore Group is of the view that the City Council canand should advance a strong case for a newrelationship with the Scottish Executive, including anew national funding partnership which would gotowards meeting the revenue requirements necessaryto secure the long-term preservation, and theassociated responsibilities, of this nationally important collection.

It is quite likely that there could be an interim periodbetween the completion of the City Council’s BestValue Review of Glasgow Museums and any decision

following a review of national funding arrangementsarising from the recommendations of the NationalCultural Strategy, published in 2000. It is the CoreGroup’s recommendation that the City Councildiscuss with the Scottish Executive interim fundingarrangements to bridge this crucial period and ensureagainst short-term but irreversible changes broughtabout by revenue shortfalls.

10 2 NATIONAL FUNDING FOR MUSEUMS

National collections in western democracies aretraditionally run by the state, as part of nationalcultural life. Typically, they are the central collectionsof Fine Art, Modern Art, Decorative Art,Archaeology,Natural History, Science and Technology, and MilitaryHistory, and established by Act of Parliament. InEngland these are funded by the DCMS. However,DCMS also funds museums for which responsibilityhas been transferred from local to nationalgovernment, as a result of ad hoc arrangements inresponse to difficulties arising from various localgovernment reorganisations. Major examples includethe National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside(£13 million p.a.), the Manchester Museum of Scienceand Industry, and Tyne and Wear Museums. Of thetotal of £220,530,000 spent by DCMS on directrevenue support for museums, £29,118,000 or 13.2%goes to museums resulting from major bequests andfor regional museums of national significance. InScotland, 96% of central government funding goes tothe National Museums and National Galleries ofScotland. None goes direct to local museums.Elsewhere in Europe the local/national distinction isless rigidly drawn. In Denmark, for example, centralgovernment provides 100% funding for NationalMuseums as described above, but also matches localgovernment funding of museums 42% to 58%.

10 3 GLASGOW MUSEUMS ANDDESIGNATION CRITERIAIN ENGLAND

Recognising that many museums other than thosefunded directly by central government heldcollections of national importance, DCMS instituted ascheme formally to designate such collections.Subsequently a challenge Fund of £15 million overthree years was allocated to preserve and interpretthese collections.There are now 56 DesignatedCollections, selected according to the criteria ofQuality and Significance, judged by a panel of expertsestablished by the Museums and GalleriesCommission.The importance of Glasgow’s collectionsand the need to recognise this in terms of funding iswidely recognised:-

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79

“It goes without saying that the collections held bythe Glasgow Museums are of a very high standardreflecting a vibrant, articulate city. Kelvingrove ArtGallery contains many world class pictures in itscollection from the Renaissance to the present day.It satisfies both a municipal need and attracts scoresof visitors from elsewhere including the seasonedinternational tourists.The Glasgow Museums are notjust municipal galleries but galleries of internationalstanding and which should be interpreted at anational level.

There needs to be a framework in which themuseums operate, reporting to the ScottishExecutive with designated national funding.The longterm care of works of art of this quality is immenseand in addition there is the curation and interpret-ation of the collections, the provision of specialexhibitions, and the supporting departments.Without national backing, they are dogged by lack ofresources to provide the high level of excellencetheir collections warrant.”

Dr Neil MacGregor, Director,The National Gallery, London

“I have no doubt that the Glasgow collections are ofnational and, indeed, international importance. BothKelvingrove and the Burrell (not to mention theother smaller satellites) contain objects of thegreatest significance, but it is the overall richness ofthe collections which gives them their real value.There are not more than half a dozen cities in theUK which can genuinely claim to have museumcollections of a wealth and depth that makes themnationally significant.The Glasgow collections arecertainly in that category. I very much hope that youcan convince the Scottish Executive that Glasgowpossesses a unique asset in its museums andgalleries. I have no doubt that proper investment inthem will yield rich rewards for the community and nation.”

Dr Alan Borg, Director,Victoria and Albert Museum, London

“One of the key things about Designation is that wehave genuinely managed to recognise every type ofmuseum collection.We have also tried to make surethat Designation isn’t just about collections under‘subject’ area, using the traditional curatorial classifi-cations. Several collections or groups of collectionshave been Designated because they give anextremely rich picture of a city or region with anoutstanding place in British, European or world

history. So, all of the collections of the PotteriesMuseums and Galleries in Stoke-on-Trent wereDesignated because together their collections give apowerful picture of the region’s role in the historyof ceramics, industrially, socially and in design andcraft terms.The collections at York City Museumsand the Museum of London were designated on asimilar basis.We can see that a similarly strong casecould be made for ‘Designation’ of all of thecollections of Glasgow Museums on the basis oftheir superb coverage of the outstandinglyimportant social, industrial and political history ofGlasgow and the Clyde.

If each of Glasgow’s collecting or subject areas wasconsidered in turn, a similarly strong case could bemade for many of the subject areas covered by thecollections.”

In the absence of a Designation Scheme in Scotland,Valerie Bott, as Deputy Director of the Museums andGalleries Commission, provided this informalassessment of Glasgow’s collection.

While the Designation Scheme in England can delivercapital to improve conditions in which collections arestored, cataloguing and so on, it does not address theissue of sustainability, which is based on revenuefunding. It is the Core Group’s view that a differentapproach is required for Scotland, focusing on theissue of sustainability.

10 4 PROPOSED SCOTTISH CRITERIAFOR SELECTION

The Scottish Museums Council’s proposed NationalAudit of collections in Scotland is intended toproduce criteria of quality and significance whichwould enable an objective assessment of Glasgow’scollections in the Scottish context.The ScottishExecutive has agreed to give priority within theNational Audit to the status of Glasgow’s Collection.

10 5 PRECEDENTS FOR GLASGOW ANDFOR SCOTLAND

The closest precedent for Glasgow is the NationalMuseums and Galleries on Merseyside, which, afterGlasgow, is the greatest museum service outside ofLondon, with those of Manchester and Birminghamits closest rivals. The collection comprises 1.2 millionobjects - approximately the same number as Glasgow- and covers a wide range of fine and decorative art,ethnography, archaeology, natural history, andLiverpool history. The funding of the collection as awhole reflects the importance of treating both thedisplay highlights and the background reference

10CHAPTER National Funding Partnership


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10CHAPTERNational Funding Partnership


collections as a single intellectual and culturalresource.

10 6 GLASGOW AND LIVERPOOLCOLLECTIONS

Local variations aside, Glasgow and Liverpool havevery different strengths. Liverpool has superb Africanand other ethnographic collections, while Glasgow’sOld Masters, Impressionist and Post-Impressionistworks are pre-eminent. Glasgow’s Arms and Armourcollection is unrivalled outside the Royal Armouries.There is no Liverpool equivalent of the CharlesRennie Mackintosh and other Glasgow Stylecollections. Like Glasgow, Liverpool had an interna-tionally important shipbuilding industry, thoughGlasgow’s dominance of the world market wascomplete in the last quarter of the 19th century. Tothis must be added Glasgow’s major locomotive andmachine tool industries which rivalled those of bothManchester and Birmingham.

To all of this would need to be added the BurrellCollection, which is equivalent in quality to, and farbroader in its range than, the Wallace Collection.Significantly, 50% of the capital costs of building theBurrell building were borne by the then ScottishOffice, recognising its national importance, andStrathclyde Regional Council contributed £300,000 toits revenue costs in recognition of its regional significance.

As a nationally funded institution, National Museumsand Galleries on Merseyside (NMGM) has resourcesseveral orders of magnitude greater than thoseavailable to Glasgow.

10 7 CONCLUSION

There are a range of models which the ScottishExecutive might develop in order to invest inmuseums other than the National Museums andNational Galleries. COSLA has recommended amodel based on regional networks.The English modelrelies on a mix of direct funding and funding via theMuseums and Galleries Commission as intermediary.

Whichever model is adopted, there is a strong casefor the Scottish Executive to recognise the national

importance of Glasgow Museums’ collections and thenationally important service which they can andshould provide.The Core Group stronglyrecommends that the City Council should formallypresent a case to the Scottish Executive for nationalfunding to be made available to resource the long-term preservation of the collections and theimprovement of all related services.

Curators

Conservators andConservation Technicians

Education

Liverpool

58

40

10

Glasgow

22

13

1

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Documents

Best Value Review