Purpose

Bristol Museums have already been awarded up
to £495,320 through the Museum Renewal Fund to cover budget
deficits and undertake additional activity to improve financial
resilience. The decision to accept this was taken at the Executive
Director meeting on 10 September and Policy Committee Chairs
briefing on 12 September.
Arts Council England has come back to successful applicants and
invited them to apply for an additional sum, up to £250,000.
There is an extremely short window to do this – applications
must be in by midday on 30 September. The additional amount can be
either used to reflate museum reserves, or to mitigate in-year
income shortfalls. As the existing award is already for mitigating
the eligible income shortfalls and overspend, we propose that this
new application is made for reinstating a museum reserve. This
additional £250k would not divert activity away from existing
mitigation plans to alleviate pressures within the museum
service.

Content

Approval to apply for an additional amount of
up to £250,000 from Arts Council England through the Museum
Renewal Fund and if successful approval to accept and spend the
funding.
Approval for the Director Economy of Place to allocate any
additional funding awarded to a Museum Reserve account.

Alternative options considered

The only other option in this case is to not
apply for the additional amount of funding. This would be turning
down an opportunity to create a reserve fund to improve financial
resilience.
Therefore the most logical decision is to apply for the funding and
seek an ODN for approval to apply and accept the funding if
successful.