The mayor of Strasbourg forces local museums to close two…
(MENAFN – USA Art News)
From next month, museums in the French city of Strasbourg will be forced to drastically reduce their opening hours to compensate for soaring energy prices that have rocked Europe since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
From October 3, the eight institutions managed by the municipality in eastern France, including the museum of modern and contemporary art in Strasbourg, the museum of decorative arts and the Tomi Ungerer museum, must close for two full days a week. week. Additional stops will be required from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on other days of the week.
The decision was announced last week by the mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, who opted for temporary museum closures rather than increasing entrance fees.
“I want our museums to remain accessible,” she told a press conference.
The town hall described the budget cuts as “good management of public resources… in the context of a national and international crisis strongly affecting the budgets of local authorities”.
But the plan immediately proved controversial, as local leaders decried the pressure on the city’s cultural sector, which accounts for around four million tourists each year.
Fabienne Keller, former mayor of Strasbourg, and Bruno Studer, former deputy of the city, launched an open petition calling on Barseghian to reconsider his decision.
“Culture is our common language in Europe, it reflects our common values,” the document reads. “Strasbourg, European capital and seat of many European institutions, can it turn its back on what makes up its DNA?
“Such a decision would be foolish! Keller and Studer added.
But cutting museum opening hours may prove to be a moderate cost-saving measure compared to what smaller towns and institutions across Europe may be forced to resort to this winter as energy prices on the mainland continue to climb.
In Britain, where household energy bills will rise by an average of 80% in October, museum bills could even rise by up to 500%.
“We get worried calls almost daily from institutions saying their projected energy bills are five times what they were last year. They say, ‘This is the dealbreaker for us. It’s worse than Covid. And they are great, city-wide institutions,” Sharon Heal, director of the UK Museums Association, told Reuters.
“They are in absolute despair,” she explained. “I’ve never seen anything like this in the industry – museum directors and general managers saying, ‘We don’t know how we’re going to pay the bills this winter.'”
Heal’s organisation, which represents more than 1,800 cultural institutions across the UK, is appealing to the government for help.
“At the moment there is nothing on the table to support museums through this crisis,” she said. It’s such a big part of their operating costs.
Without support, she added, “the consequences could be really serious. Museum services in major cities will either have to close several days a week to save on energy costs, or close entire sites.
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