The Heritage Lottery Fund started a project to assess the needs of key heritage areas following on from its first Strategic Plan (1999-2002). We identified public parks and museums and galleries as the first sectors for this work.

A series of papers were commissioned to look at key themes and issues, completed throughout 2000. The final report on UK Museum Needs Assessment 2002 : A report by HLF, Re:source and ABL is now available.  

Assessment background

From 1999, we have helped some Area Museum Councils with their audits of museums, and put in hand with the then Museums and Galleries Commission a needs assessment exercise for UK museums. This project, now with the support of Re:source, began in January 2000. The exercise proposed to scope and survey the needs of the sector rather than identify individual museum needs or prioritise between museums.

A series of papers were commissioned to look at key themes and issues, completed throughout 2000. These papers are published here, though it should be noted that time has elapsed, and significant changes to the museum landscape have since occurred. All of the authors have agreed, notwithstanding this, that HLF and Re:source should jointly publish the papers. The Heritage Lottery Fund will consider the UK museum needs assessment work later in the year.

You can read these papers by clicking on the links below.

The economic impact of museums - a critique (pdf file 75kb)
Education and learning: needs assessment paper(pdf file 52kb)
Higher education institution museums, galleries and collections (pdf file 33kb)
ICT needs assessment: `Budgetary suicide at the altar of ICT` (pdf file 58kb)
Museums, galleries and social inclusion (pdf file 147kb)
People development in museums and galleries (pdf file 50kb)
Stewardship (pdf file 113kb)
Training for cultural change in museums (pdf file 29kb)

UK Museum Needs Assessment 2002 : A report by HLF, Re:source and ABL

This report describes and comments on the long term and strategic needs of the museums sector in the UK. It draws together the findings of a complex set of research and consultation exercises undertaken in 2000 and sets out the issues which HLF, and other organisations, will need to address in planning their museum funding and development policies for the next decade.

UK Museum Needs Assessment 2002 (pdf file 1.1mb)