End of the MLA: Will You Miss It?
Posted in Politics, Presentism on 26. Jul, 2010
UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP has proposed abolishing the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. “Government support for museums, libraries and archives will continue”. The proposed wind-up date is 2012. This news comes soon after the cuts to English Heritage and their resulting recruitment freeze. They have a lot more to look forward as the DCMS is “considering the role and remit”.
So what does this mean? A lot more unemployed in the culture sector for starters as the most likely replacement will be a small team within the Culture department. A lack of a national body to oversea museums probably means that local councils will be able to do what they like. Can we expect a bunch of new job losses in the smaller museums? Or what’s stopping the selling of collections?
Presentism, as this blog often cites, is the short-term decisions of living in the Present over building for a long-term future. Now is important over working out where we are going. I am a firm believer that growth is the way get us out of problems and cuts do not promote growth.
I ask all of you now; with the MLA going soon, will you miss it? How will it affect you? What do you foresee happening? Drop a comment below (it may take some time to approve).
And if anyone in another country wants to see my CV, send me an email.
this is a joke, right?
can’t be possible that someone is taking this seriously.
What do you mean?
Good question. I have to say there is nothing about the MLA per se that I will miss greatly. I’d much prefer to see a united Culture Council, with arts and cultural heritage united in a common mission to improve wellbeing, make culture as open and participatory as possible, enhance learning, and ensure a life-sustaining planet. However, that doesn’t seem to be on the cards. If these cuts mean that there is no funding (or advocacy to philanthropic funders) for development of mission, engagement strategies, digital innovation and production/conservation standards then we’ll all be in a very difficult place indeed.
I should add that I wonder how this fits into “Big Society”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10680062
“The initiatives being championed include… efforts to recruit volunteers to keep museums open”
Considering that this pretty much happens anyway, “keep open” suggest that the last few workers are under threat. Is this the government slowly cutting museums loose?
I’ll definitely miss the salary standards. As far as I know, the MLA is the only organization to actually come up with standards for museum salaries. The AAM certainly doesn’t offer that! I really do wonder how this will impact wages. Things are terrible already, but I’m sure they can get worse.
This is a bad thing for the art and museum community but not surprising it is one of the things to get cut in this economy.