Museums in Britain are more popular than football matches – but without extra cash they will no longer be the most powerful grouping of museums anywhere in the world.
Issuing the verdict Prof Tony Travers, of the respected London School of Economics, said a financial boost to the sector could allow the UK to be a world leader in “creativity and scholarship.”
Already more people in Britain have visited museums and galleries than the total number attending every league football match in the last year, including the Premiership League.
In fact, seven of the top ten visitor attractions in the UK are museums, and five receive over a million visitors each year– an attendance matched by only one football team, Manchester United.
Although museums are free and people have to pay to see a football match, there is evidence to suggest heritage is more popular than sport, and has been for much longer than the last 12 months.
According to a 2005 poll by Mori, 43% of the UK population went to museum or gallery – suggesting enough interest to make the trip concerned – whereas just 41% said they were ‘interested’ in football.
To make the economic case for museums, regardless of their popularity, Prof Travers said £1 in every £1,000 in the UK economy can be directly related to the museum and gallery sector.
Moreover, he added: “Museums and galleries offer a major internationally traded service (by generating exports) while also underpinning the creativity upon which future high value added economic activity is likely to be based.”
For these reasons, museum staff deserve better pay, one-third of establishments need renovation, and overall, the sector needs additional income and higher capital expenditure.
The call for support is pressing because it coincides with major cultural investments in Berlin, St Petersburg, New York and Denver.
“Britain will [therefore] be less likely to attract affluent ‘repeat’ visitors unless its institutions are also moving forward,” the report concludes.
“The storehouses represented by these [UK] institutions will encourage people in this country to use their creativity and talent to develop new services, products and even manufactured goods.
“The agglomeration of institutions, talent and audiences in Britain has parallels in only a few other countries. However…there is a risk the institutions will be taken for granted and not seen as the potential opportunity they represent.”
Dec 18, 2006
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