from BBC News
Minister warns 'hoarding' museums
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from The Guardian
Rift over museum funding change
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The latest British government consultation paper "Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life" (PDF document here) has highlighted several possible changes to how museums and galleries in the UK would be expected to be funded and managed.

One immediate concern would be a tighter competition amongst museums and galleries for funding from a central pool rather than individually, as is the case now. Government funding decisions would be done through an intermediary agency (much like an arts council).

The other implication which surfaced from the consultation paper was the explicit expectation for greater access to collections as in having more and more of collections currently in storage to be placed on display. This could well morph into a kind of "performance measure" for museums and galleries in time to come. Museums would be under increasing pressure to lend their collections and package more touring exhibitions to smaller (regional) museums.