{"id":816638,"date":"2026-03-10T12:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/816638\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:52:13","slug":"self-generated-income-for-uk-museums-can-only-go-so-far-in-filling-gaps-left-by-funding-cuts-report-says-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/816638\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-generated income for UK museums \u2018can only go so far\u2019 in filling gaps left by funding cuts, report says – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report<\/a> on the financial resilience of UK museums funded by the state has warned that \u201ccost-containment measures\u201d adopted by the institutions \u201ccan only go so far\u201d in the face of dwindling government subsidies and external factors such as tourism costs.<\/p>\n

The survey conducted by the National Audit Office (NAO) analysed visitor numbers, income and financial management over the past five years at the 15 museums and galleries directly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).\u00a0These include the British Museum, the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum Group and the Museum of the Home in east London.<\/p>\n

The report reviews how the DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries and the DCMS managed financial challenges after the government ended its extra Covid-19 pandemic funding. The DCMS provided \u00a3484m grant-in-aid in total to the 15 institutions from 2024-25, a 16% decrease from 2021-22 (the Labour government came into power in July 2024 following 14 years of Conservative administrations).<\/p>\n

The report states that \u201cself-generated income sources are riskier and more susceptible to external factors, such as tourism costs like travel and accommodation, and exchange rates. \u2018Blockbuster\u2019 exhibition income is volatile and high risk, with membership revenue also becoming unstable due to high membership churn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museums\u2019 costs have also increased in real terms since re-opening after the pandemic. \u201cTotal\u00a0expenditure by the 15 museums and galleries has increased by 18% in real terms from 2021\u201122 to 2024-25, although it remained slightly lower than the annual pre-pandemic average. The increase since 2021-22 has been driven, in part, by higher staff costs following increases in staff pay and staff numbers after lay-offs during the pandemic,\u201d the report adds. Museums and galleries have also faced increased operating costs for maintenance and energy.<\/p>\n

Most museums and galleries have subsequently increased self-generated income and drawn on their reserves to cover their increasing costs. The total income self-generated by museums and galleries in 2024-25 was \u00a3563m, a\u00a053% increase since 2021-22.<\/p>\n

Museums and galleries have used diverse methods to boost funds, the NAO stresses. These include venue hire; visitor donations and membership schemes; touring collections overseas; licensing arrangements with commercial bodies; paid-for visitor experiences and other hospitality and retail projects.<\/p>\n

DCMS increased funding to the museums and galleries by \u00a331m from 2025 to 2026. This included \u00a324.8m to provide all institutions in February\u00a0last year with a minimum 5% increase in their funding, with additional support for six museums in the most financial difficulty, the report adds. Nonetheless, \u201cover half of the museums and galleries (53%) reported to us that they were facing a worse financial position in August\u00a02025 than three years ago,\u201d says the NAO.<\/p>\n

There are indications also that some museums and galleries may not have the financial management capacity to manage future risks, warns the NAO. \u201cSome museums and galleries have small finance teams, while many have experienced significant churn in their senior financial leadership in recent years. Some have also struggled to produce their annual accounts for audit on a timely basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAO recommends that the DCMS identifies a set of indicators linked to the financial resilience of museums and galleries which \u201cit will monitor on a regular basis to identify potential early warning signs of financial difficulty\u201d. DCMS must ensure that it has structures in place to identify early warning signs should museums and galleries start struggling to manage their financial risks, the report concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A report on the financial resilience of UK museums funded by the state has warned that \u201ccost-containment measures\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[91894,748,155586,393,4884,95129,4729,4842,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-816638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-arts-funding","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-department-of-culture","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-media-and-sport","15":"tag-museums","16":"tag-museums-heritage","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116204978008129227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}