Council promises meeting with Royal Cornwall Museum to discuss future and funding
The Truro building is at risk of closure after the local authority pulled its funding
The Royal Cornwall Museum has been promised a meeting with Cornwall Council to discuss its future and funding opportunities.
The Truro building is at threat of closure after the local authority announced it was not successful in its bid for Culture and Creative Investment Programme funding.
The boss at the museum told us they usually receive around £79,000 a year from the council in funding and they are reliant on its support.
Cornwall Council has issued a new statement saying it is committed to working together with the Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM), alongside other partners, to find a long-term solution to keep the museum running, supported by appropriate funding.
We're told a meeting between the Council and RCM will be held to discuss the immediate impact of the change in the way that the Council funds creative and culture organisations.
The authority says then, over the summer, in a bid to find a sustainable solution to the funding needs of RCM, a meeting with other strategic partners will take place to develop a plan for the long-term future and success of the museum.
The Royal Cornwall Museum's executive director, Jonathan Morton, told us: "I've read messages from people who have come to the museum as a child and then have returned with their children, people who've said their careers have been inspired by some of the collection pieces that we have, and we have over 6,000 school children come in each year, all from Cornwall.
"The heartfelt emotional messages show this museum makes a big difference to people, and it makes a big difference to our cultural heritage and telling that story through our collection."
Cornwall Council portfolio holder for neighbourhoods Carol Mould said: “When we announced the successful applicants to the Culture and Creative Investment Programme, which replaced the cultural revenue grants programme, we acknowledged that the change in emphasis and the objectively scored application process meant that some applicants would be disappointed not to be successful in their bid for Council funding.
“This is no reflection on their excellent work in culture and the creative arts and we had already said we want to work with them to unlock other potential funding opportunities from partner organisations in the future.”
Carol added: “The Council has supported the RCM over many years as part of the Council’s cultural revenue grants programme. All recipients were informed that that funding stream was ending to be replaced by the Culture and Creative Investment Programme. Applications were invited to the new Investment Programme and it has become clear that this is not the appropriate funding stream to support the RCM. However, their work and their offer are clearly important to many in Cornwall and beyond and we want to work with them to find an alternative way forward.”