One in Eight Museums Worldwide May Never Reopen, According to the International Council of Museums

A startling pair of reports from UNESCO and the International
Council of Museums (ICOM) suggest that the extended closures forced
on many museums around the world in recent months may lead to the
permanent closure of as many as one in eight such institutions
worldwide.

An astonishing 85,000 institutions—around 90 percent of all
museums worldwide—have been forced to close temporarily, according
to the UNESCO report. And nearly 13 percent of the 1,600
international museums surveyed by ICOM reported that they would
close permanently. Another 19.2 percent said they were uncertain
whether they would be able to continue.

Among those that will remain open, there will be fewer resources
with which to operate. Nearly 83 percent of museums foresee
reducing programming, according to ICOM. And keeping the lights on
will force 30 percent of those institutions to make staffing
cuts. Already, 20 percent of museum workers have lost their
jobs. Only 7.3 percent of staff have continued working
on-site during shutdowns.

“We are fully aware of and confident in the tenacity of museum
professionals to meet the challenges,” ICOM president Suay Aksoy
said in a statement. “However, the museum field cannot survive on
its own without the support of the public and private sectors. It
is imperative to raise emergency relief funds and to put in place
policies to protect professionals and self-employed workers on
precarious contracts.”

The museum sector has grown enormously in the past decade. Since
2012, the number of museums worldwide has grown 60 percent,
according to UNESCO. But institutions now face a precarious
future, regardless of their size, scope, and focus. More than 40
percent of the museums surveyed by ICOM predict they will lose some
public funding as a result the weakened international economy.
Nearly 43 percent said they would lose private funding.

UNESCO found that museums in Africa and the so-called Small
Island Developing States, which make up just 1.5 percent of the
world’s institutions, were especially hard hit. While many
museums in other parts of the world pivoted to offer online
content, only five percent of the institutions in those two regions
were able to make the shift. In addition, nearly half the world’s
population currently has no internet access, according to the
UN.

“It is alarming data that we are giving,” Ernesto Ottone, the
assistant director general for culture at UNESCO, told the Associated Press.

The new studies echo the results of
a survey from
the Network of European Museum Organizations,
which found that Europe’s biggest cultural attractions, such as the
Stedelijk and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, have been losing as much as
€2.5 million ($2.75 million) a month.

In the US, a report from Americans for the Arts found that
American institutions had already lost a combined $4.5
billion by early April. Earlier this month, a report
from SMU DataArts and TRG Arts put projected
losses for the nation’s cultural institutions at a total of
$6.8 billion
year-over-year. A call from the American Alliance of Museums
for $4 billion in government aid have gone largely unanswered by
Congress, and the organizations predicts that 30 percent of
museums in the US may be forced to close permanently.

As museums do reopen, they are being encouraged to follow
ICOM safety guidelines that
include limiting visitor numbers, using online booking systems,
placing markers on gallery floors to illustrate proper social
distancing, and keeping interior doors open to minimize the need to
disinfect handles.

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