More than £10m worth of support has been requested from a £4m resilience fund
A support fund for museums in Scotland has received a large amount of applications.
Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has received applications totalling £10.7 million to the £4 million Recovery and Resilience Fund, established to support museums through the pandemic.
The huge demand underlines the scale of the need to enable museums and galleries to continue their work at the heart of communities across the country. MGS’s most recent survey findings also compounds the picture of a sector severely impacted by the pandemic with 46% of respondents reporting temporary closure of their museum until 2021 or beyond.
The fund, made possible by funding from the Scottish Government, closed at the end of October. It was available to independent museums and galleries, a part of the sector who faced acute financial challenges. Through targeted advocacy activity, meetings with the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Cultural Convenors, MGS is highlighting the urgent need to address funding challenges faced by all parts of the sector and to seek support beyond March 2021 to enable organisations to operate and adapt in a very changed environment.
Lucy Casot, chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland said: “We are thankful for the support received from the Scottish Government which has allowed us to channel vital funds to our independent museums.
"The scale of demand for our funding demonstrates an urgent need for continued and responsive support. Already we are seeing the impact on communities as redundancies are being made, outreach activity affected and with many museums simply unable to reopen or operating at greatly reduced capacity.
"The applications we have received show great ambition from museums and galleries to adapt and develop resilience through forward thinking action. Museums and galleries have the potential to play a key role in our recovery as vital community institutions and we will continue to make a strong case for urgent support.”
