Supporting York Museums Trust - CYC Consultation 2017

Supporting York Museums Trust – CYC Consultation 2017

York Museums Trust would like your support.

The City of York Council (CYC) have invited York residents to have a say on how the 2018/19 budget should be spent, including the allocation that is given to York Museums Trust.  As someone who has visited one of our sites or who has shown an interest in the work we do, we are asking you to take part in the consultation and share your views.

The funding for culture across the UK has been drastically cut in recent years as austerity has significantly reduced local authority budgets. We recognise that CYC have had to make very difficult decisions. We also recognise that CYC is very supportive of York Museums Trust as an organisation, so we are writing to you to encourage you to take part in the consultation so that you may express to CYC your appreciation of that support.

York Museums Trust has had a fantastic 18 months. We have:

  • Won national and international awards for the £8 million development of York Art Gallery.
  • Brought world class art exhibitions to the Gallery, including work by Degas, Rubens, Picasso and Paul Nash.
  • Crowdfunded to bring the thought provoking Leisure Land Golf to the free Artists Garden.
  • Created a ground-breaking exhibition, Viking: Rediscover the Legend at the Yorkshire Museum in partnership with the British Museum.
  • Introduced new events in York Museum Gardens including the Eboracum Roman Festival, York Proms and, this December, Christmas at York Museum Gardens.

These achievements and others by the Trust have helped us attract visitors to the city and York Museums Trust’s visitors contribute £15 million to York’s economy every year. We also play a key part in positioning York as a World Class cultural destination. This helps attract 6.9 million visitors to the city a year who together spend £564 million and support 19,000 jobs.

To continue to be able to do this and care for the 1.7m objects and 18 buildings including 10 listed buildings and two scheduled ancient monuments which we look after on behalf of CYC, it is vital that the funding we do receive does not fall any further. It has already been reduced from £1.5 million in 2013/14 to £300,000 a year and no longer covers the costs of looking after the collections and buildings.

If further cuts to YMT’s income were made this could lead to a reduction in access to some of York’s most famous and loved sites, or the amount we can spend on conservation and repair.  It could also reduce the quality of our work presenting wonderful historic and cultural assets for the people of the city and for visitors.

We passionately believe YMT’s historic buildings and rich heritage are a significant part of what makes York such a special place to live and work. If you feel the same we would be grateful if you would support us by sharing your thoughts with CYC by taking part in their consultation.

The deadline for taking part in the survey is Friday December 1 2017 (for paper surveys included in the Council’s magazine Our City) and at midnight on Friday December 15 2017 (for online surveys).

To take part in the consultation please go to: https://www.york.gov.uk/consultations 

Many thanks for your continued support.


Reyahn King

Chief Executive, York Museums Trust