Government investment in the arts is to be boosted over the next three years, with the announcement yesterday of an extra £50 millon for Arts Council England by 2011. The funding body’s grant will rise from £417 million this year to £467 million in 2010-11.

Grants to England’s national museums and galleries will rise from £302 million this year to £332 million in 2010-11, slightly above inflation.

But English Heritage now fears the worst. Next week, James Purnell, the Culture Secretary, will announce its funding for the next three years. The heritage body is calling for him to reverse cuts over the last decade that amount to some £100 million.

Simon Thurley, its chief executive, said: “What they seem to have said is that the Government’s priority is museums and the Arts Council.

Read full article (The Times, October 13, 2007)

“While being faced with a seemingly inevitable and partially beneficial rise of web-based communication technology and human interaction, museums can and should offer an alternative for the exchange of artistic expressions on the web if only to maintain a much needed balance between the quantity and quality of art.”
Michiel van Iersel

“It is very likely that ‘the wisdom of crowds’ and ‘radical trust’ will increasingly affect museums, but I believe that as long as there are moral, economic and legal incentives to conserve our heritage, there will be agents – curators, programmers, critics – who will be rewarded for their expertise.”
Juha van ‘t Zelfde

Virtueel Platform has published the article Brave New Museum. A Conversation about Museums in the Digital Age, written by MuseumLab editors Michiel van Iersel and Juha van ‘t Zelfde.

Download the pdf.