Industrial Action closes Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

Flagship museum closed as staff strike over cuts

One of Scotland's most popular museums is closed as staff take strike action over planned job cuts.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow was shut on Monday, while other city museums and galleries face possible closures later this week.

Proposed cuts will affect 38 specialist roles like gallery curators and conservators - who protect items in the museums.

Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums, said it had to make £7.1m of savings.

Unison, the union representing staff on strike, warned that cutting the number of conservators could cause a "high-profile accident" and valuable collection pieces could be damaged.

"Collections do not look after themselves," a union spokesperson said.

New plans will reduce the Special Collections, external team, in the Mitchell Library, to one person to care and repair for 1.8 million objects, Unison said.

"Deep cleaning of display venues by specialist Conservation staff will greatly reduce or completely disappear.

"World-class textiles at the Burrell Collection, taxidermy specimens at Kelvingrove and other vulnerable organic objects will be at particular risk of pest damage without regular, vigilant cleaning by highly-trained specialists."

The entire Glasgow museum collection is worth over £1.4bn, with millions of objects on display and in archives.

Glasgow Life, an arms-length organisation which runs the city's art, leisure and culture sector, said it received 80% of its budget from Glasgow City Council.

It said £7.1m worth of savings had to be made because of a £50m council budget deficit.

Unison has been in talks with Glasgow Life over proposed cuts for the past month.

High-profile events
Brian Smith, Unison Glasgow secretary, said: "These workers are taking a stand to defend both themselves and the city’s world class museums. They deserve support."

Glasgow's museums have hosted high-profile events this year, like the Mary Quant fashion exhibition at Kelvingrove and Banksy’s Cut and Run exhibition.

The Burrell Collection in Pollok Park also won the award of Art Fund Museum of the Year.

"These are just some of the successes Glasgow Museums have delivered this year," Unison said. "The very staff that helped deliver these successes are now under threat of losing their jobs."

lasgow Life said senior museums officers had met Unison to discuss the impacts of the planned staff cuts within the museums service.

It said cutting 38 jobs would save £1.5m.

Glasgow Life said: “We recognise how valued our museums and collections are to Glasgow’s communities and the city’s international profile, and we understand the concern any changes may cause.

"Wherever possible, we have identified ways of making savings by reducing, rather than losing Glasgow Life services programmes, and events; retaining the potential to rebuild them in