If you thought things were tough, more is to come. A few days ago there was the sad news of the closure of the National Museum of Costume at Shambellie House, Dumfries. Gordon Rintoul, NMS director, said: The low number of visitors to the site along with the high operational costs is simply not sustainable. The museum attracts 10,000 visitors each year, and costs £220,000 per year to run. That is a running cost of £22 per visitor. Currently closed for the winter, it will not re-open for the spring season. The message is simple - use them or lose them. How are you working to support and increase the number of visitors to your local textile museum? Let's share some good and useful ideas.
Sorry to hear about this, guess everyting is effected by the poor economy worldwide.
ReplyDeleteWe put on a demo last year at our local county museum Taber Museume in Williamsport, Pa USA. Which houses a large collection of clothing, mostly from the Victorian Era. Some of us medieval reenactmors have some ideas to put up a display for the public. The garments are great resources of sewing from earlier periods. Hope not many more will have to close due to lack of interest and funds.