'Crisis point' for Scotland's national galleries
Director slams “too little, too late” government funding
Friday 10 January 2025 | news from museums, galleries, heritage and art, including:
National Trust boss’ death threats
British Museum’s animal mummies exhibition
Bristol mulls shuttering three city museums
Happy Friday — and happy new year.
This is my first newsletter to you after the festive break — it’s good to be back!
Welcome to the 80 new readers who have joined us since the last edition — and to anyone who is reading for the first time.
If you’re new here, here’s a quick new-year recap: I’ve been writing this newsletter for over six years, bringing people news, views and interviews from the world of museums, galleries, heritage and art every week. But I’ve been working in museums since 2009 in various roles, spending the past decade in museum communications and press. Oh and I have a master’s degree in Museum Studies too.
I send you six newsletters each month, with every Friday being a full news round up of the biggest stories you need to know, plus some of those you may have missed. It’s hard to keep up with all the developments from around the world, so let me do that for you! Twice a month I also send you a big interview and much more, in special mid-week editions. I have a great one for you coming next week.
Eagle-eyed readers may notice a couple of subtle design tweaks to the newsletter from today — and there’s also a (very) bitesize new feature right at the end too. So as always make sure you read to the bottom!
If you work in any of the sectors this newsletter covers — or if you’ve spotted something as a visitor — then get in touch! Stories — and gossip — very much welcome! You can hit reply to any of the emails, or you can contact me at hello@maxwellmuseums.com. Oh and you can follow me on Instagram too @maxwellmuseums.
It takes dozens of hours each month to put these newsletters together, and I only get paid for those hours when you donate to me, you sponsor me, or you purchase some of my hand-picked products (usually books) through select links I include in some editions. (It’s no extra cost to you). So please support me if you can.
So, now we’re all caught up! 2025 is going to be a rollercoaster year for museums and beyond — with ups, and (unfortunately) downs — and I’ll be here to cover every twist and turn so you can stay fully in the loop. Let’s go!
— maxwell
ps. the easiest way to support me and this newsletter is to share it with a friend or colleague who would also find it useful. Hit the button below to spread the knowledge.
— I may earn a small commission from purchases made through these links
Get ready for Grayson
One of the exhibitions I am most looking forward to in 2025 is Grayson Perry’s takeover of the Wallace Collection in London. It’ll double as a birthday celebration too, as it opens on the very day Sir Grayson turns 65.
The Wallace Director promises the show will “surprise and intrigue.” So now feels like it’s a great time to gen-up on the artist, which is why I’ve picked the three best Grayson Perry books to dive deeper into his art and mind:
📙 Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Girl — a raw, funny, and deeply honest journey from a turbulent Essex childhood to discovering art, identity, and self-acceptance.
📗 Smash Hits — with 75 vibrant works and exclusive insights, this stunning book celebrated Perry’s biggest ever UK exhibition at the National in Edinburgh in 2023.
📘 Playing to the Gallery — a witty manifesto that demystifies contemporary art with humour and insight.
Your ‘need to know’ stories
Scotland’s national galleries "crisis point"
The boss of Scotland’s national galleries has said they will need to shut one of their venues and make other “seismic changes” unless the SNP-led government gives them more money. Director Anne Lyden said the organisation was at "crisis point" because of staffing costs, and the need for £40 million to address crumbling buildings.
Funding to the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) from the Scottish government will go up 9% in the next financial year, to £21m. But Lyden called this “too little, too late” and said the extra money would be totally swallowed up by staffing costs.
NGS has said it’s in a ‘staffing cost trap’ due to the SNP’s ban on compulsory redundancies in the public sector, and the UK government’s National Insurance increases for employers. They said “For 2025/26, 93% of our grant in aid and 72% of our total income is forecast to go on salary costs…escalating expenses threaten the sustainability of our operations.” (Read more)
National Trust boss’ death threats
The boss of the National Trust has revealed she received death threats over their 2020 report detailing links to slavery in the 93 houses in their care. Hilary McGrady said she didn’t report them to police, saying being from Northern Ireland had given her “perspective.” She said she found the threats “bizarre.”
McGrady was speaking to the Times as the Trust announced its ambitions for the next decade, which will see it focus more on nature and the climate. They’ll create 250,000 hectares of nature-rich landscapes, an area much bigger than Greater London. It’ll also increase people’s access to nature, beauty and history, including by taking on the management of a 14th century former monastery in Coventry, its first property in the city.
McGrady said their new priorities were based on the findings of the largest survey the Trust had ever conducted. “We asked people, ‘What really matters to you?’ and — with no prompting from us — this thing about nature came to the fore” she said. (Read more)
🔗 FULL INTERVIEW | National Trust boss: I got death threats over our slavery report
Getty Villa saved from LA wildfires
The Getty Villa and its priceless collection has been spared any damage from the ongoing deadly wildfires currently engulfing Los Angeles.
The Villa’s emergency response was enacted when the fast-moving Palisades fire was spotted a mile away at 10:40am on Tuesday. Less than two hours later it had reached the property. The 16 staff on site at the time —in communication with staff at a ‘war room’ ten miles away — enacted emergency protocols.
Preparation had been key to saving the Villa the Getty Trust President Katherine E. Fleming told the LA Times. Extensive brush-clearing over the last year had been carried out due to fire risks. Air-flow valves and air conditioning were switched off or sealed to protect the collection from smoke damage. Fleming said the sites’ security cameras, which helped them monitor the dangers early in the crisis, failed because of the heat. As did the radios for communications. For now, the Villa appears to be safe.
Yet other cultural venues were destroyed, including the historic home of entertainer Will Rogers, and the Alto Beta gallery in the community of Altadena. Most of LA’s major galleries have remained closed due to the ongoing crisis, including the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. (Read more)
UK news 🇬🇧
Three museums under threat 🚨
Councillors will next week decide if they’ll permanently close three of Bristol’s museums as part of plans to prevent the city’s bankruptcy. Blaise Castle, the Georgian House and the Red Lodge museums could all shut, saving £132,000 by 2030. Yet the council needs to save £43m in the next two years. The plans — proposed by the Green Party-led council — have been slammed as ”Philistine” by Bristol’s Tory councillors. (Read more)
An overnight success 🖼
The Van Gogh blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery has become the third most-visited show in the venue’s history, with 283,000 visitors from its opening day in September. Demand was so high that a new set of tickets — running all through the night on next week’s final weekend — were released. They were all snapped up in 24 hours. It marks only the second time the gallery has opened overnight — the first being for 2012’s da Vinci show. (Read more)
British Museum unwraps animal mummies 🐱
While everyone was thinking about 2025’s exhibition’s, the British Museum went one better and announced it will host a major exhibition on ancient Egypt’s mummified animals in autumn 2026. It’ll be based on major new research that will see the museum’s 400 animal mummies — including cats, baboons and gazelles — given their first comprehensive X-ray testing and CT scanning. (Read more)
Big Dickens energy 📚
London’s Charles Dickens Museum will celebrate its centenary with a new exhibition showing the ‘greatest hits’ of its collection. A copy of David Copperfield which survived Captain Scott’s 1910 expedition to Antarctica, and a draft of Dickens’s public letter announcing his separation from his wife will be among the highlights. The show will open next month, 100 years after Dickens’ former home was saved from demolition. (Read more)
McGraw makes it to Bradford 🐧
After 18 months of closure, the revamped National Science and Media Museum in Bradford has (partly) reopened. Unveiled on the opening day was a new giant replica of Wallace and Gromit villain Feathers McGraw and his ‘techno-trousers.’ It’s been made specially for the museum by Aardman Animations. The museum has reopened in time for tonight’s opening ceremony marking Bradford tenure as UK City of Culture 2025. (Read more)
🔗 MORE TO EXPLORE | ‘It’s our Olympic opening ceremony’: Dynamo, David Hockney and more unite for Bradford city of culture
Rare U-boat gets new museum 🌊
Work has begun on a new museum to showcase the only surviving German U-boat from World War II in Britain. The museum which originally housed the submarine closed in 2020 due to its crumbling building. That building is now being demolished, and the new Battle of the Atlantic U-Boat museum is expected to open in Birkenhead in 2026. (Read more)
Global news 🌎
Germany 🇩🇪
Despite outcry and protests, Berlin’s government has approved swinging cuts to the city’s culture budget. €130m — 12% of its budget — has been axed, prompting fears that some cultural institutions will have to close. Paul Spies, the co-president of the Berlin Museums Association, said it was “a very bad decision…foolish in every sense.” Berlin’s right-wing mayor defended the budget, blaming the “green dreams” of the city’s former left-wing administration. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱
Dutch museums have won a last-minute reprieve on a plan to massively hike the amount of VAT they pay. The new coalition government — of which the far-right PVV is the largest party — wanted to increase the tax from 9% to 21% for cultural institutions. However it’s been dropped after opposition parties united against it. Rijksmuseum head Taco Dibbits said it would be “scandalous” if the proposals were reintroduced, as they would be forced to raise ticket prices. (Read more)
Spain 🇪🇸
Jeff Koons — the world’s most expensive living artist — has said he can’t see himself using AI in any significant way in his work, saying “I don’t want to be lazy in the back seat.” He was speaking at the launch of his major new exhibition of sculptures at the 13th century Alhambra fortress complex in Granada, alongside works by Picasso. It’s the first exhibition in a new series of Picasso joint exhibitions with living artists planned for Spanish landmarks. (Read more)
Serbia 🇷🇸
Zaha Hadid Architects has won a design competition to create the new Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. The project will renovate Belgrade’s historic 1920s Milan Vapa Paper Mill into a venue celebrating the inventor and engineer’s legacy. The 13,400-square-metre museum‘s design is inspired by Tesla’s research into magnetic fields and wireless energy transfer. A new public square will also be created, and a rooftop restaurant. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Arise, Sir Gabriele
The National Gallery's Director Gabriele Finaldi has been knighted in the New Year Honours. He said he was “profoundly humbled.” HM The King also awarded an OBE to Tony Butler, boss of Derby Museums Trust. (More)
Museum’s escaped exotic birds
Heavy snowfall has badly damaged the zoo at Leeds’ Lotherton Hall museum, resulting in the escape of rare exotic birds. Authorities are now asking the public for help finding the missing birds. (More)
Jaguar 2.0?
The British Museum has confirmed it will overhaul its brand identity alongside its decade-long building renovations. A tender has been issued for £150,000, seeking an agency to refresh the whole visual look. (More)
Archivist in Trump’s sights
President-elect Trump said he plans to replace the head of the US National Archives. The current head’s predecessor raised alarms about Trump’s handling of presidential records, leading to a federal indictment. (More)
Mmmmmmm. Science-y.
The Science Museum is launching its first ever afternoon tea. Adults can enjoy a solar system-themed cupcake, while kids can ‘enjoy’ a test tube with edible soil. And popping candy. (More)
👀 Last edition’s most clicked news story
New collaboration brings touch of Black Country Museum history to IKEA superstore
💻 New and updated on maxwellmuseums.com
— 9 must-see exhibitions in the Netherlands in 2025
— What’s on at Tate Modern in 2025
🔍 The week in a number
1% — the percentage of charitable giving in the UK that goes to the arts.
📊 This week’s poll
Don’t forget to share this newsletter with a museum and art-loving friend or colleague!
Thanks, as always, Maxwell - all the best for 2025