Museums across the North-East face "disaster" under threatened Government cutbacks which could spell the end of vital conservation work and valuable collections, it was warned last night.
Just four years after ministers handed over more than £16m to revamp museums in the region, arts chiefs have insisted they are facing a bleak future because of fears of widespread funding cuts next year.
The number of people taking part in museum activities in the North-East have soared by a staggering 23,000% since the Government introduced the Renaissance in the Regions project in 2002 in a bid to overhaul museums around the UK. But Tyne and Wear Museums director Alec Coles has warned possible cutbacks will have major implications - saying it could put the region in a "worse situation" than when the scheme began. Giving evidence to a cross-party Commons committee yesterday, Mr Coles, also director of Newcastle's Discovery Museum, said the fund had produced dramatic results in the North-East "possibly greater than might have been thought".
Even though only £16.5m had been earmarked for the region in the six years to 2008, the number of school children taking part in museum activities, and not as part of a school trip, had risen from just 120 in 2002 to almost 28,000 last year.
But with the Chancellor Gordon Brown set to approve across-the-board cutbacks in Government budgets in the Comprehensive Spending Review next summer, insiders fear the Department for Culture, Media and Sports - and regional museums - will be one of the worst hit. "It will be a disaster and depending on the level of reduction we could find ourselves in a worse situation than when we started," Mr Coles said. Conservation work could be hit along with outreach work, such as the Magic Bus Tour, where museum staff visit schools.
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Visitor numbers soar
In just four years, visitors to museums across the North-East have soared thanks to Renaissance in the Regions investment.
According to Tyne and Wear Museums boss Alec Coles the investment has shown exactly what museums can achieve - and what they expect to lose if funding cutbacks are made.
Mr Coles revealed to MPs:
* The number of children visiting Tyne and Wear's 11 museums and galleries between 2002 and 2006 rose by 40% to 128,586.
* The number of adults participating in museum activities rose by 653% with 12,805 people now taking part in `outreach' work.
* Outreach activities organised by the museum services also reached 59,500 children in the last financial year - an increase of 6,504% over the past four years.
* The total number of visits to Tyne and Wear's museums increased by 20% to 2.07m in 2005/06.
