I think the reason that MOSI is being singled out is that it is the
newcomer to the Science Museum Group (SMG), having been 'saved' by
them in the last couple of years.
Now, on the surface the SMG is happy to have MOSI, and aren't they
the heroes for saving it. Underneath things may be rather different.
You see the main reason that MOSI needed 'saving' was because the
Coalition decided to trash, without understanding, some fairly long-
standing funding arrangements for a number of large regional museums,
including MOSI. These arrangements were, in part a legacy of
Thatcher's decision to try to silence political opposition to her
government by abolishing the Metropolitan Counties, as Tyne & Wear,
Greater Manchester et al.
So, the 'saving' of MOSI by the Science Museum was a convenient way
of keeping MOSI going once the old funding arrangements were hacked
from under it. Now I don't know what the SMG found when they looked
at MOSI's books, but they may not have been too pleased with what
they'd got. So now the SMG is possibly saddled with an institution
they didn't really want, which may be a drain on their other
resources, and the thanks they get from a grateful goverment is a
further 10% slashed off their budget.
Under these circumstances, if you were the SMG, what would you do?
To keep MOSI open it needs to be properly funded. Whether this is
best done by keeping it as part of SMG, or by some other means is
possibly yet to be determined. The SMG cannot be expected to function
adequately with 10% less money than it has now, whether or not MOSI
is part of it. And, of course, if the SMG closes MOSI it'll get even
less money from the treasury in future years because its one museum
smaller.
The real issue then is to secure adequate funding for the SMG to be
able to keep all its existing sites, including Manchester, open. If
there are particular problems with Manchester SMG needs to be given
time to address these and come up with viable solutions. The cost of
taking a measured approach to whatever problems MOSI has within the
SMG are so small in terms of the national budget that any reasonable
government would allow this to be done, and not force closure on MOSI
for a sum of money so small that it amounts , in national terms, to
a few coppers.
Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
[log in to unmask]
On 6 Jun 2013, at 12:41, Wynn Abbott wrote:
> I'm not so sure Bradford (National Media Museum) would face the chop.
>
> Someone on Twitter said "they'll probably just absorb Bradford into
> London and use the new Virgin Media Gallery." The National Media
> Museum is HUGE, they'd have to build a new wing of the Science
> Museum to house it, not squeeze it into a single gallery space.
>
> Of all the SMG museums it's arguably the most cutting edge -- new
> media?
>
> The Museum has the only IMAX cinema in the region, which I'm
> guessing is a good income stream.
>
> Also, you're missing the major point here -- Bradford and York
> shouldn't been seen as "provincial" museums, they're already
> national museums? Manchester should be but isn't...
>
> </case for Bradford>
>
>
> Wynn
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:PSCI-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dominic McDonald
> Sent: 06 June 2013 09:54
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Reports that Manchester Museum of Science
> and Industry under threat of closure
>
> Lyndsey's right, I think. This feels like SMG holding a gun to
> MOSI's head and saying "don't make me pull the trigger...".
>
> BUT...
>
> my understanding is that they are willing to pull the trigger if it
> comes to it. It does seem odd that MOSI is the one who's being
> publicly threatened, rather than York or Bradford (or Shildon or
> Wroughton). That's one of the reasons that it feels like they might
> be getting their retaliation in first in advance of the spending
> review. Having said which, the thing I don't know is the deficit
> that each site is running: it may be that MOSI is a much bigger
> drain on SMG's resources than the others. But my guess is that -
> all things being equal - if any of the "provincial" museums are
> going to get taken outside and shot, then it will be Bradford...
> even though they do lovely work, I think that politically they are
> the most expendable. Discuss.
>
> Let's all move to Norway: they've got loads of money up there..
>
> Dom
>
> Dom McDonald
> Head of Public Engagement
> Science Oxford
> 1-5 London Place
> Oxford OX4 1BD
> Tel 01865 810000
> DD 01865 810021
> www.scienceoxford.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:PSCI-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lyndsey Clark
> Sent: 06 June 2013 09:29
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Reports that Manchester Museum of Science
> and Industry under threat of closure
>
> I'm afraid that for those of us working in museums this rehetoric
> is no surprise whatsoever. It's nothing to do with the 'north/
> south' divide.. (MOSI is not a 'national' which has a specific
> meaning in museums and NMSI - now SMG - took it over when DCMS
> abandoned it to local government because of that).
>
> I see this as round one of the propaganda campaign between SMG and
> the govt. - SMG are pointing out that having taken 25% cuts already
> and made 89 redundancies, if they are cut a further 10% then they
> WILL have to take DRASTIC ACTION.
>
> They have got in there first with this point... and the Manchester
> Evening News have nicely picked up the story and created a petition
> to show how much support there is for that museum.
>
> This will be what the SMG want. They don't want to shut anything...
> they want less of their funding cut....
>
> The government are still trying to pretend that the cuts in
> cultural funding are all eliminating 'inefficiency' and those pesky
> 'backroom staff' who clearly do nothing useful (!?!?).... That is
> not true, and it's about time more museums stood up and pointed out
> that they are facing death by a thousand cuts and it cannot
> continue to have minimal effect on the really big things the public
> see (like how many museums are open).
>
> Lyndsey Clark
> Interpretation - Exhibitions - Engagement Projects
>
> e: [log in to unmask]
> web: http://ltclarkuk.wordpress.com
> twitter: @ltclarkuk
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask]
> with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)
>
> • set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday)
> • set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages) • signoff psci-com
> (to leave the list) • Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-
> bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com
>
> Contact list owner at [log in to unmask] Small print
> and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://sites.google.com/site/
> pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask]
> with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)
>
> • set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday)
> • set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages)
> • signoff psci-com (to leave the list)
> • Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?
> A0=psci-com
>
> Contact list owner at [log in to unmask]
> Small print and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://
> sites.google.com/site/pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask]
> with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)
>
> • set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday)
> • set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages)
> • signoff psci-com (to leave the list)
> • Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?
> A0=psci-com
>
> Contact list owner at [log in to unmask]
> Small print and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://
> sites.google.com/site/pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print
>
> **********************************************************************
**********************************************************************
Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask] with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)
• set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday)
• set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages)
• signoff psci-com (to leave the list)
• Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com
Contact list owner at [log in to unmask]
Small print and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://sites.google.com/site/pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print
**********************************************************************
|
