Tuesday 1 September, 6pm – Audit Committee
Saturday/Sunday – Duke of Edinburgh Award exhibition
We are currently heavily involved in a scheme to improve and modernise Ipswich Museum, a plan that will cost money- Labour run Ipswich Borough Council have promised a large contribution but we also depend on private funders plus a large grants from outside organisations.
The good news is that in Ipswich we seem to have all party support, and we hope that the Tory run County Council also support and contribute- of course the County Council should be the organisation that funds museums in the county, fortunately in Ipswich we still run the Museum service as I can imagine if the Tories run it the building would now be mothballed or the service moved to Newmarket.
But as I mentioned earlier it is great we have all party support for the project in Ipswich so knowing that I was disappointed with a tweet from the Ipswich Tory leaders which implied she would be happy if museums started to charge again, the reason for the tweet is that museums are now struggling to ends meet as Tory cuts begin to take hold. But the plan to charge is so short sighted – Museums have been a success story over the last 20 years and the main reason has been the scrapping of entrance fees, attendance numbers have gone through the roof, museums have become more ‘visitor’ friendly, charging again would just see that trend quickly reversed.
Attendance figures have increased but still more work has to be done to get more children visiting, more visitors from under privileged backgrounds – and schemes to promote museums to these people costs money and money worth spending.
Introducing admission fees will see attendance numbers drop and museums become a place that only the middle classes go to.
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