John Orna-Ornstein, director of museums and southwest for Arts Council England (ACE), has spoken about the challenges facing the museums and wider culture sector, addressing a disparity between the north and the south of Britain based on the number of independent and authority-funded museums in each part of the country.

Speaking today (18 May) at the Museums and Heritage Show in Kensington, London, Orna-Ornstein said there was a lot that museums were doing well in a climate where they face a number of challenges varying from finances to becoming a modern institution.

“If I were doing a school report, I would give Britain’s museums a B at the moment,” he said. “They’re doing really, really well, but I would say what my teacher would say to me every year – ‘could try harder’. Overall, there’s lots and lots of noise in the background with many challenges but there’s also lots and lots that’s going well. If you look at the data, it’s providing some really positive messages."

Addressing the obstacles Britain’s museums face, Orna-Ornstein said that challenges varied from county to county, with the most telling differences divided between the north and the south.

“It’s sort of ok for some and not for others,” he said. “The message I’m getting is the sector itself is not in a bad place, however for particular places and particular types of museums working with particular local authorities, it can be much, much more difficult.”

“Local authority museums are not evenly spread across the country. Particularly in the north, there are much more local authority museums and that’s because those museums are built on a legacy of empire and industrialisation. You think about the big civic cities of the north, which you don’t really see in the south except for London. It’s there where those symbols of civic pride were built. The Midlands is about half-and-half for independent and local authority. Across the south east and south west, the majority are independent. That means across the country cuts are going to affect museums differently.”

“There’s a very particular picture starting to emerge of challenges that are highlighted in some places, whereas some places are managing or doing much better based on the region of the country they are in.”

According to ACE, 40 per cent of museums are local authority museums. Of the remaining 60 per cent, about 30 per cent of those rely on some element of local authority support, so at least half the museums in the sector depend on local authority support in some way.

“What we know is that support from local authorities has gone down by at least 7 per cent,” said Orna-Ornstein. “That matters because it’s the most important single resource for museums in the country and it’s going down. The decline in terms of cultural services and museum budgets however is not disproportionate. It should be tougher for museums but evidence suggests it’s not. The local authorities – as far as they are able to – are protecting museums and culture. That’s a good thing – it shows that culture matters to our local authority councils.”