Museum Accreditation in the UK is a process whereby a museum is recognised as meeting best standards in the field in terms of governance and management, collections care and management, and information and services provided to users.
The scheme emerged from the museum sector. The scheme was established in 1988 as the Registration Scheme. [1] [2] It was rebranded the Accreditation Standard in 2005. [3]
The Accreditation Standard and guidance for museums were reviewed and updated in 2018–19. [4] [5] [6] There was another review in 2023–24. [7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Accreditation Scheme was paused from 1 April 2020 and accredited status extended. [8]
Three areas of standards must be met to become accredited: organisational health, collections, and users and their experiences. Within each area are more specific requirements.
Most museums are required to submit an initial eligibility questionnaire for assessment. A local team makes an initial assessment and submits recommendatons to the accreditation manager of the relevant national body (Arts Council England (ACE), Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS), Northern Ireland Museums Council, or the Welsh Government). If the body decide to grant approval, the museum is classed as "Working Towards Accreditation" and must submit a full application demonstrating compliance with the three required areas within three years. [13]
In Scotland, museums must either subscribe to MGS or pay a fee for accreditation. [14] Museums in Scotland but covered by the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985 receive accreditation from Arts Council England. [14]
Museums are accredited fully for five years and then must demonstrate that they continue to meet standards on a returns schedule. [7] [4]
The Accreditation Scheme is managed by the Arts Council England, Museums Galleries Scotland, Northern Ireland Museums Council, and the Welsh Government. [4]
From 2014, Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker was appointed chair of the committee. [15]
About 1800 of the around 2500 museums in the UK are accredited, up from 1304 in 2017. [16] [5] [17] 250 museums in Scotland are Accredited. [4]
Glasgow Women's Library is the only UK accredited museum dedicated to women's history. [18]
Museums may apply for accreditation to gain prestige, advice, access to funding or other resources. [3] Losing accreditation can lead to reputational harm and reduced access to funding and resources. [2]
Museums do not need to be accredited to apply for Museum and Gallery Exhibitions Tax Relief. [19] However, several funding schemes, including those from Art Fund, the Royal Society, and Arts Council England, do require museums to be accredited, in the process of becoming accredited, or to justify why not. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]
Museums including the Museum of Croydon and Northampton Museum lost accredited status for selling parts of their collections to raise funds. This made them ineligible for some funding streams. [25]
Accredited museums are part of a UK network. When Bury Art Museum lost accreditation in 2005 due to the sale of a Lowry painting, it was excluded from British networks. After a successful international touring program, the museum was reaccredited in 2014. [26]
Accredited museums are able to apply to the Treasure Trove Unit to apply for ownership of significant archaeological finds. [27]
Museum accreditation can limit what can be done with collections in terms of engagement, in order to meet professional standards. [28]
Becoming accredited enables museums to host touring exhibitions. [29] British museums that are accredited may not be able to loan artefacts to museums that are not accredited. [30]
Jeffrey Abt has suggested that accreditation was part of a trend toward professionalisation and the emergence of the public museum. [3]
English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts, and country houses.
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term is used in the United Kingdom in two senses. It may be used narrowly and specifically to refer to the "official" scheme administered by English Heritage, and for much of its history restricted to sites within Greater London; or it may be used less formally to encompass a number of similar schemes administered by organisations throughout the UK. The plaques erected are made in a variety of designs, shapes, materials and colours: some are blue, others are not. However, the term "blue plaque" is often used informally to encompass all such schemes.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. Its main offices are at 100 Parliament Street, occupying part of the building known as Government Offices Great George Street.
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2002 when all of the regional arts boards were subsumed into Arts Council England and became regional offices of the national organisation.
National Highways (NH), formerly the Highways Agency and later formerly Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all four UK administrations, through the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. Within England, it operates information services through the provision of on-road signage and its Traffic England website, provides traffic officers to deal with incidents on its network, and manages the delivery of improvement schemes to the network.
National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection.
The Museum of English Rural Life, also known as The MERL, is a museum, library and archive dedicated to recording the changing face of farming and the countryside in England. The museum is run by the University of Reading, and is situated in Redlands Road to the rear of the institution's London Road Campus near to the centre of Reading in southern England. The location was formerly known as East Thorpe House and then St Andrew's Hall. It is an accredited museum and accredited archive as recognised by Arts Council England and the National Archives.
The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum was a museum in Bristol, England, exploring the history of the British Empire and the effect of British colonial rule on the rest of the world. The museum opened in 2002 and entered voluntary liquidation in 2013.
The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals and organisations of the United Kingdom. It also offers international membership.
The Institute of Conservation(Icon) is the professional charitable body, representing and supporting the practice and profession of conservation. It has around 2500 members worldwide, including professional conservators, scientists and teachers involved with the care of heritage objects and buildings.
The Collections Trust is an independent UK-based charity that works with museums, libraries, galleries and archives worldwide to improve the management and use of collections. It was established in February 1977 as the Museum Documentation Association (MDA) and re-launched as the Collections Trust in 2008. Its head office is in Shoreditch, London.
Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS), formerly the Scottish Museums Council, is the National Development Body for the museum sector in Scotland. It offers support to 400 museums and galleries, ranging from small local museums to larger regional and national museums. It is the Scottish partner in the UK Museum Accreditation Scheme.
Arundel Museum is a local museum in the town of Arundel, West Sussex, just inland from the south coast of England. Arundel Museum is run by the Arundel Museum Society, a registered charity. The museum is staffed by volunteers and relies on subscriptions, donations and fundraising events for its survival.
Kingston Museum is an accredited museum in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. The Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the building of the museum, which adjoins Kingston Library.
Acceptance in lieu (AiL) is a provision in British tax law under which inheritance tax debts can be written off in exchange for the acquisition of objects of national importance. It was originally established by Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George as a means for the wealthy to pay the increased estate taxes imposed by his People's Budget of 1909 but had its roots in similar schemes dating to the late 19th century. It has developed from the early years, when it was used mainly as a means for the aristocracy to dispose of country estates to the National Trust, to the modern day, when it is more associated with the transfer of works of art, antiquities and archive material to museums. The scheme is administered by Arts Council England, a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The scheme has brought many houses, works of art and other collections into publicly accessible institutions when they would otherwise have gone to auction. In April 2013 the Cultural Gifts Scheme was started which allows taxpayers to make a donation of art in return for a credit on income tax, capital gains tax or corporation tax. The Cultural Gifts Scheme is also administered by Arts Council England and is reported jointly with the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery is a public museum in Northampton, England. The museum is owned and run by West Northamptonshire Council and houses one of the largest collection of shoes in the world, with over 15,000 pairs, which was designated by Arts Council England as being of local, national and international importance.
The Northampton Sekhemka statue is an ancient Egyptian artefact, given by the Marquess of Northampton to Northampton Museum, in or around 1870. The statue dates from the 5th dynasty and depicts Sekhemka the scribe with his wife, Sitmerit. It was the subject of a controversial sale in July 2014, that raised questions of the museum's ownership and the ethics of selling artefacts. The statue was sold to an unidentified buyer for £15.76m, which broke the world record for Ancient Egyptian art at auction. On 1 August 2014, Northampton Museums had their accreditation removed by Arts Council England, which ruled that the sale did not meet the accredited standards for museums in managing their collections.
The City Art Centre is part of the Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, which sits under the Culture directorate of the City of Edinburgh Council. The City Art Centre has a collection which include historic and modern Scottish painting and photography, as well as contemporary art and craft. It is an exhibition based venue with no permanent displays.
A national football museum dedicated to Welsh association football in Wrexham has been proposed by various politicians in both the Welsh Government and local councils, with Wrexham County Borough Council being the leading contender for a museum due to Wrexham's football heritage. The museum is currently in the planning stages and under current proposals, the museum is set to be within the pre-existing County Buildings on Regent Street, in Wrexham's city centre, alongside the Wrexham County Borough Museum and Archives.
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