Written Please contact us if for any reason you find it difficult to send Written evidence submitted by Birmingham Museums Trust Evidence of Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors Introduction Birmingham Museums Trust (BMT) is a charity (no. 1147014) and a company (no. 07737797). BMT manages the city’s internationally significant collection of over 1 million objects on behalf of Birmingham City Council. The collection is Birmingham’s greatest cultural asset and a priceless resource for learning, creativity, health and wellbeing, it is displayed and stored in nine museums and historic properties. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, city centre Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, city centre/eastside Aston Hall, Aston Blakesley Hall, Yardley Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Hockley Sarehole Mill, Hall Green Soho House, Handsworth Weoley Castle Museum Collection Centre, Nechells The majority of the collection is recognised under the Designation Scheme. Eight of our sites are Accredited Museums, six are listed buildings, one is a scheduled ancient monument. We employ c.200 permanent staff plus seasonal, temporary and casual staff. We generate over 55% of our income from commercial and private sources including visitor admissions, educational programmes, retail, cafes, catering and venue hire, fundraising and more. The remaining c40% our funding is from Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England In 2019/20 BMT saw nearly 1 million visitors (first time visitors 47%, 25% C2DE, 22% BAME, 4% identify as disabled). Importantly BMT has the highest number of school visits of any cultural organisation in the city, engaging well over 100,000 school children from over 2,000 schools in our education programmes. There were 1.2m visits to our website and we have 230k social media followers. BMT works with some 60 community organisations annually across visits, outreach, projects, consultation and co-production. Last year over 10.7m people experienced the collection, either as visitors to our sites, through outreach to schools and groups, or at venues across the world where objects were on loan. BMT is one of the largest cultural organisations in Birmingham and in the West Midlands. We are submitting this evidence to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on our own business, the subsequent impacts on our beneficiaries, visitors, partners, the city-centre and the neighbourhoods our buildings occupy, and the wider arts, cultural, museum, heritage and STEM (Science, technology, engineering, maths) sectors that we are active participants in. What has been the immediate impact of Covid-19 on the sector? BMT closed all 9 sites to the public on 18 March as a consequence of Covid-19. BMT saw an immediate end to earned income – admissions, school visits, onsite donations, retail, catering and venue hire – with a devastating effect on our ability to operate on an ongoing basis. None of this income will be recovered, without furlough we would be unable to operate as a going concern. With the imminent ending of furlough, we will be unable to reopen without operational losses totalling £2m by March 2021. In addition to income drop there have been some stock losses (mostly perishables). As a result of closure, our 1,000 strong volunteer workforce who support all areas of BMT’s work, from gallery interpreters to collections researchers has been suspended. A number of crucial partnership projects designed to engage people across the community are on hold. Including: Education, community engagement and evaluation programmes for MiniBrum, Thinktank’s new gallery for under-8s. The new £2m gallery opened in May 2019, funded by the Inspiring Science Fund co-funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Wellcome Moving On – to engage and upskill veterans of the armed forces (funder Armed Forces Covenant Trust) Community Pass – providing free access to Thinktank for vulnerable communities (funder ASDC) STEM partnership project with Smallpeice Trust – delivering outreach and inreach with schools in Birmingham’s more disadvantaged communities Don’t Settle – partnership project with Beatfreeks to engage and develop new governance roles for young people of colour at BMT BMT hosts exhibitions led by smaller cultural and community organisations reliant on project funding from Arts Council or National Lottery Heritage Fund. Our programme for 2021/22 has been affected by planned exhibitions having to be cancelled or rescheduled, partners such as South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive have not been able to apply for project funding in Spring 2020 owing to its temporary suspension. The indirect impact on our city and neighbourhoods: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery plays a vital role in bringing people into the city centre as the retail environment continues to change. It generates a significant contribution to the local economy (2018 Dippy on Tour £4.2m gross spend by visitors; 2019 Home of Metal £3.1m of economic activity by visitors). It is not economically viable to reopen the Museums until visitor numbers return to pre-/covid levels. The reason for this is we generate over 50 % of revenue from our customers. This represents the loss of two significant city centre attractions whilst other businesses are starting to reopen. The closure of each historic property represents a loss of community facilities including free-to-access green spaces as well as educational and family entertainment opportunities. Impact on international partnerships: Covid-19 has left 206 of our short term loaned objects stuck at museums in lockdown in the UK (3), Europe (2) and in the US where 201 objects feature in a major 8 venue touring exhibition, Victorian Radicals. Covid- 19 had an immediate impact on this touring exhibition which generates significant income for BMT. Its current venue Yale Centre for British Art in Connecticut was forced to cut short the exhibition, one other venue has had to pull out and another is close to doing so, unless we substantially extend the tour to reschedule. This tour was curtailed just after winning a prestigious international award, with a loss of income of $153,000. Two Japanese touring exhibitions led by BMT on behalf of the English Civic Museums Network are facing potential delays by up to 2 years owing to the impact of Covid-19, although the Japanese sponsor is still committed. BMT is also having to review and likely cancel its planned exhibition with partners in Bangladesh, mainly the Bengal Foundation, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh independence. We are exploring alternative digital outputs. Our team have implemented a Digital Learning & Engagement Plan to engage and support audiences, and remain in contact with our volunteers and groups such as our Creative Carers. Digital engagement has remained strong throughout lockdown and some planned strands of work such as collaborations with local artists and our Inspire art competition were successfully launched as pure digital projects. We have only been able to deliver a very limited offer for schools. We repurposed the shop at Sarehole Mill as a community shop selling tinned goods, flours and fresh baked bread from the recently restored bakery. This has been generated goodwill in the local community and kept one of our sites alive during lockdown. We have implemented a number of other income generation and audience engagement initiatives supported by a willing and dedicated staff team. Whilst these provide positive stories building staff and community morale, the income generated will make a very limited impact on our losses and the impact on the well-being of a small staff team cannot be under-estimated. How effectively has the support provided by DCMS, other Government departments and arms-length bodies addressed the sector’s needs? 1. BMT is making use of the Job Retention Scheme and currently has 170 members of staff furloughed representing c70% of our workforce. We will need to make full use of the scheme, as without furlough (see above) we cannot trade without an unsustainable loss. 2. Arts Council England’s early decision in lockdown to extend the NPO funding round by an additional year to 2023 was a positive move and essential to BMT’s short term sustainability. The decision by the UK Museum Accreditation Scheme, led by ACE, to delay accreditation reviews by 12 months and the pragmatic advice circulated by ACE’s Government Indemnity Scheme team concerning GIS insured objects stuck in museums closed to the public was helpful. ACE’s National Portfolio Organisation Emergency Response Fund was timely with clear guidance. At the time of writing BMT does not know whether its application for funds to cover a proportion of our financial losses and preparation for reopening will be successful. ACE’s decision to support organisations survival until the end of September 2020 (but not beyond) seems short-term, especially when (at the time of writing) there is no further funding available to support stabilisation and revision of business plans. In so far as this affects BMT, if visitors levels do not return to pre-Covid within for example an 18 month period we have no way to make up lost revenue, leading to further losses of up to £3m in addition to the £2m mentioned above. 3. BMT has been awarded £50,000 via Birmingham City Council’s Business Grants Scheme for the 5 properties it manages with a rateable value of less than £51,000. It has not been awarded any additional funding by the City Council as yet. 4. Although it is eligible to do so as an independent charity, as yet BMT has not applied for funding support via the Birmingham City Council Supplier Relief Fund. BMT are due to make an application to the fund and are in discussions with the City Council about doing so in order for them to support the organisation as it focuses on stabilisation and recovery.