A brief thread on the Wallace Collection who wish to close their library and archive and make two staff redundant to prioritise 'income generation'.

DCMS grant Wallace £3.91m in 2019-20.
Senior management get £375k w. pension.
Archive costs £132k. /1
#Museums #Heritage #Archives

Dig through their Annual Reports and a spicy picture emerges.

The Wallace collection earn 46% of their revenue through DCMS.

If Wallace are NOT willing to be fit custodians in enabling access to our vibrant shared heritage, then it should be broken up and dispersed.

Simple. /2

There has been a serious and damaging trend among DCMS national museums for well over a decade to push away from core activities.

In part this is due to a serious lack of Departmental oversight, bloated director salaries, mission creep and confused commercialism & bailouts. /3

Nationally funded museums must be held to a high standard or what, seriously, is the point of building up collections if we just shutter them away - Administratum style, allowing diverse groups' enthusiasm/engagement to rot and our history to wane. /4

In complex times we need dynamic access to materials and open access, accessible and friendly museums looking to genuine, positive reform.

If Wallace is set on such a course, then DCMS should withdraw funding and break up the collection.

A travesty but, c'est heritage. /5

Thanks to @Morwanneg for highlighting this.