Social History Curators' Group

SHCG responds to news of Newport museum closure

Following the recent news that Newport City Council is considering closing Newport Museum and Art Gallery, SHCG have written a letter to the council's Chief Executive, Mr Godfrey.

The council faces unprecedented cuts to its budgets for 2015/2016 and has tough decisions to make. There is currently a period of consultation for local residents to have a say in what services should be affected by the cuts. One of the proposals is that the Museum and Art Gallery should be closed and all items moved to storage. This would reportedly also result in the loss of 13 FTE posts.

Part of the remit of the Social History Curators Group is to act as an advocate for social history collections and the staff who work with them. As a result, we have sent a letter to the council explaining the detrimental impact we think the museum closure would have, as well as asking for more clarification on how they have estimated their savings through closure will be made. You can download and read our letter below.