Museum Victoria faces staff and exhibition cuts

Museum Victoria, Australia's largest public museum organisation, is to shed 10% of its 550-strong workforce, hold fewer touring exhibitions and lengthen is hosting of shows in order to reduce costs.

The news comes just two months after one of its operations, Melbourne Museum, won the top Australian Tourism award, and after it recorded its biggest number of visitors in a year.

It comes as a result of Victoria's state budget last week which froze the State Government's grant to the organisation, which includes the Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum and Scienceworks, at around $40 million.

However, the museum organisation was successful in securing one-off funding of $3.3 million this year to renew some key galleries and the projection system at its Planetarium.

Among other cuts announced in a document distributed to staff, Chief Executive Patrick Greene outlined a management restructure of the group. The reorganisation will mean fewer staff at Melbourne Museum's Discovery Centre, fewer live exhibits and the integration of the history and technology department and the indigenous cultures department into one.

Dr Greene said that since January departing staff had not been replaced.

Community and Public Sector Union State Secretary Karen Batt recently told the ABC that funding of the museum has not kept pace with the increases in its operating costs, stating "we believe the Government needs to fund our cultural heritage and stop forcing institutions to cut staff or to go out and find blockbusters to fill funding shortfalls."

Batt was highly critical of the arrangements for 'blockbuster' exhibitions suggesting that financial benefits from these events may not be reaching the museum.

Batt explained "broadly speaking we understand that some of those exhibitions have been put on by private companies, and that the contract negotiations are handled through Melbourne Major Events, or through the Premier's office and the Arts Department and are negotiated on a commercial basis.

"Some aspects of the money come to the museum through the hire a venue capacity (and) through the shop of the museum ... but importantly, most of the money from people going into those exhibitions goes back to the touring companies that have brought those exhibits out."

Melbourne Museum is the nation's busiest with 2.3 million visitors across its venues in 2010/2011. It broke the attendance record for a single exhibition when 796,277 visited Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs during its 34-week season.

7th July 2011 - RECORD VISITORS FOR VICTORIA’S MUSEUMS