There is not one museum building that a Birmingham resident could visit this afternoon

Thank you, Lord Mayor. I would like to take a few minutes to speak about our city’s museums and galleries.

The Capital Strategy appendix highlights a critical need for nearly £2m in basic repairs at Aston Hall, to maintain the viability of the 400-year-old Grade I listed building, as a museum. 

Two other museum sites are currently closed ‘due to ongoing maintenance issues’ - The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, which is the preserved Smith & Pepper workshop; and Soho House, the Georgian home of industrialist Matthew Boulton.

Since 2012 and on behalf of the city, Birmingham Museums Trust has run our nine museum sites and been responsible for our collection of one million objects, much of which is of national importance and includes the world’s finest collection of Pre-Raphaelites. 

But today you wouldn’t be able to visit that art collection or even be able to go into the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery because the Grade II* listed landmark building, isn’t open on a Tuesday. 

And even though it reopened last autumn, after being closed for four years for essential maintenance works, still only a quarter of the 40 galleries are open, and only from Wednesday to Sunday.

In fact, there is not one museum building that a Birmingham resident could visit this afternoon. Aston Hall is only open at the weekends and the café is closed. The Museum Collection Centre, where 80 per cent of those one million treasures are stored, is only open on Fridays for two hours. Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday, as is the 250-year-old Sarehole (Water) Mill, famous for its association with author JRR Tolkien - yet its café and popular pizza courtyard are closed. Blakesley Hall, one of the city’s oldest and most historically significant buildings, in my own area of Yardley isn’t open at the weekends, just Wednesday to Friday, with no events, café or school parties.

How do children in East Birmingham visit that timber-framed Tudor house if they can’t go with their school during the week or their parents at the weekend? How is any income to be brought into the museum if it’s closed for more days than it is open, with no events offered and the café closed?

By all accounts those school parties – at loss of £50-100K a year - are now going to Selly Manor, which is run by Bournville Village Trust, and is open six days a week in the summer and offers a package of talks, tours and unique venue events.

In fact, the only Birmingham Museums Trust site you could visit this afternoon are the 750-year-old ruins of the fortified manor house at Weoley Castle - presumably because they are outdoor.

Funding for UK arts and cultural organisations has fallen by 18% since 2010 and the Government announced ‘rescue funds’ last month, to help museums, theatres and other cultural venues stay afloat and fix crumbling buildings. 

And though visitor numbers to museums and art galleries are recovering they remain 25% lower than pre-pandemic levels, which is undoubtedly compounded by the current high cost-of-living.

However, accepting these are pressures across the whole sector, it appears that only museums in Birmingham, along with those in Derby and Hampshire, are giving warnings that they ‘face a perilous financial position’ with the ‘imminent threat of sale of collections or closure’. 

I had a quick look at one or two other cities, to see if their museums and galleries were semi-closed, but – again - it seems to be a Birmingham rather than a sector problem.  

Wolverhampton Art Gallery is open seven days a week with a café; Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery is only closed on Mondays; and Manchester’s Imperial War Museum North is open every day except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. 

However, considering the city’s long lease and service arrangement with Birmingham Museums Trust – until 2043 - I have to remain hopeful that their year-long, lottery-funded work to scope a sustainable funding model and five-year plan, alongside the council’s own review of BMT’s financial position, deliver some solutions. Those reports are both due this month. 

And I urge the Economy, Skills and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee to expand its work, currently only assessing the ‘health of our assets’, to include a more rounded interrogation of the financial future and provision of arts, heritage and culture in this city.

Our amendment recommends implementing a small levy on Birmingham hotel rooms – common in European cities - to raise funds for arts, culture and heritage.

I was pleased to see the work the council is already doing with city stakeholders on the feasibility of a new ‘Accommodation (Tourism) BID’ and how that might support cultural and events activity, as well as the Budget Scrutiny Group recommending such a levy for the second year running. 

I would urge the Chamber to support exploring this opportunity further and for the Leadership to move forward with it.

Edinburgh’s Visitor Levy Fee announced in January is expected to raise up to £50m a year with a 5% fee applied to overnight accommodation – capped at five nights - with a key objective to sustain, support and develop the city’s culture, heritage and events provision.