| Allan Wilson:
In response
to Dorothy-Grace Elder's final point, I know where I come from—I was born
in Glasgow.
Michael Russell:
But where is the minister going?
Allan Wilson:
I am just about to tell the chamber that. Mike Russell should be patient—it
is a virtue.
I join my colleagues
in congratulating my good friend and colleague Pauline McNeill on securing
this debate on Glasgow's museums and art galleries. I have been interested
to hear members' views and I welcome their interest. Mike Russell's point
is significant and I hope that we are all engaged in pushing sport and
culture up our respective political agendas—I certainly need all the help
I can get.
I go along with
much of what has been said about the city's museums and their collections
and pay tribute to the successive city councils that have added to and
cared for those collections for the benefit of citizen and visitor. Their
legacy is a number of splendid buildings housing comprehensive, important
and—dare I say it—exciting collections. The success of Glasgow's museums
and galleries is not in question, as the figure of 3 million visitors a
year testifies. The council deserves great credit for that and I want to
emphasise that that is how it should be. Glasgow has statutory responsibility
for funding and operating its museums and galleries.
I understand
the point that has been made about the east-west issue and I agree with
Bill Aitken and disagree with Mike Watson—I do not think that there is
an east-west issue. All local authorities have the same responsibility
and all of them receive substantial support for their museums and galleries
from the Executive through standard local authority grants.
The motion misunderstands
the Executive's announcement of 2 November, which was clearly about funding
for the national bodies for which the Executive has direct statutory responsibility.
As Minister for Finance, Jack McConnell had announced on 20 September an
overall increase in funding for local authorities of 10.5 per cent in real
terms over the next three years. Any expectation of additional funding
for local museums in the announcement of 2 November was misplaced. I think
that that is now understood.
That does not
mean, however, that we do not value local museums. As Mike Russell conceded,
the national cultural strategy fully recognises the central role of local
authorities as providers of cultural services, and the objectives could
not be met without their major contribution. This morning, Sam Galbraith
and I had a productive meeting with representatives of the Convention of
Scottish Local Authorities to discuss how best we might work in partnership
with local authorities to secure the joint objectives in the cultural strategy.
That strategy identifies the need to protect and preserve museum collections
that are important to the nation and acknowledges for the first time that
the present framework lacks consistency and strategic direction. We and
COSLA are committed to addressing those issues across Scotland.
I welcome the
pragmatic support of the Opposition for the national audit of museums and
their collections to establish their relative importance. We are providing
£3 million over the next three years to help restructure the non-national
sector and place it on a sounder footing. I stress that that is new money
for local museums and galleries and that the initiatives have been widely
welcomed across the sector, as they have been in Glasgow.
The strategy
recognises Glasgow's particular position, and we undertook to work with
Glasgow City Council to examine the circumstances of the museums and galleries
in Glasgow. As members may know, as there has been some press comment on
the matter, we made a start on that last Friday when Sam Galbraith met
Bailie Cameron, the convener of Glasgow's cultural and leisure services.
I can assure Pauline McNeill and any other interested member that the meeting
was constructive and positive. I emphasise, however, that no substantive
decisions or agreements were reached at that stage.
There can be
no quick fixes in these circumstances, and Mike Russell's point about the
timetable of the national audit is important. No one, least of all the
citizens of Glasgow, would be served by a quick and shoddy national audit.
The national audit must be well planned and soundly prepared and it must
be robust, not least because the museums have to rely on its outcome.
Michael Russell:
I entirely endorse what the minister says about the nature of proceeding
with the national audit, but I am sure that he is aware of the surprise
of many in the museum sector who know of the work done by John Compton
and others to undertake essentially a national audit; the work has already
been substantially done. That work can be enhanced, but our going back
to basics and redrawing the national audit will slow things down. Does
the minister recognise that it might be possible to speed things up by
taking advantage of the work already done in the national museums?
Allan Wilson:
I can confirm that a preparatory audit is under way, and there is a timetable
to which we are operating.
I do not think
that Glasgow's museums are in crisis, but the service has clearly become
overstretched in recent years. It is equally clear that Glasgow City Council
has recognised that itself—it has already undertaken a great deal of important
work and firm action to address the problems, not least through a robust
best value review.
More work requires
to be done, and, to answer Sandra White's point, the Executive is committed
to co-operating with the council. We have agreed to get down to the work
and to further discussions at official level, and I am confident that that
will offer a productive way forward for both the council and the Executive.
We fully recognise
local authorities' major role in Scotland's cultural life, including their
provision of museums and galleries. Responsibility for funding them lies
with the authorities themselves. We have acknowledged the fact that there
are difficulties in the museum sector in general, and we are already addressing
them through our national cultural strategy commitments. I referred to
the national audit, and to the £3 million that is available for restructuring.
Critically,
we also recognise that Glasgow faces particular problems, which we are
committed to addressing. I hope that, during the short time that I have
held my current post, we have made a sound and positive start to addressing
those problems. We look forward to working with Glasgow City Council to
establish the way ahead for Glasgow's museums and galleries, and I thank
all the members who have spoken in the debate for their contribution towards
achieving that.
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