The Museums Association website recently reported that the City Council plans to tender for an external commercial company to run a number of it’s Museums.
“Southampton City Council has put the management of its City Art Gallery, Tudor House Museum, and the new Sea City Museum, due to open in 2012, out to tender.”
Rescue Says: Both the Sea City project and Tudor House restoration are HLF funded and one of the terms of the HLF’s contribution, is that entry to both museums is free. There could end up being a situation where if a commercial organisation takes over and decides to charge entrance fees to the sites, the HLF will ask for its money back – which will place Southampton City Council in an awkward position both over the future funding of the institutions, and the ability to attract funding streams from the HLF in the future.
