Our Chair, Phil Crabtree, recently wrote to the Yorkshire Post arguing that rural museums are the lifeblood of Yorkshire’s rural communities, highlighting our campaign for a new home.
Read his full letter below, or visit the Yorkshire Post website.
For 90 years, Malton Museum has served the district of Ryedale in North Yorkshire, including the bustling market towns of Malton and Norton. We have been at the heart of the community, creating a sense of place for residents and a key attraction for tourists. We’re one of hundreds of historic places in Yorkshire and the Humber for memorable family days out and major local events like our family-focussed Roman Festival that draws in over a thousand people in a single day from across the country every year.
Like us, over half of the more than 1,700 accredited museums across the country are independent according to Arts Council England, contributing £838.7 million in gross impact to the UK economy. Our changing exhibitions have told the fall and rise of Malton from before the Roman invasion to our newest growing Eastern European community. Through schools outreach and a lively events programme, Malton Museum has played its own role in the town’s revival over the past two decades to become a regional tourist destination, but the hopes for post-COVID recovery are starting to fade.
We receive no core funding from Government or local authorities so it’s a struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on. Like 39% of independent museums, we’re almost entirely volunteer run. We have just two rooms for our temporary exhibitions and kids’ activities, meaning most of our nationally significant collection remains hidden. We’ve had to find ways to diversify our income. We introduced our first paid exhibition in 2023, showcasing an iron age shield that was excavated nearby and described by Prof. Melanie Giles from the University of Manchester as “the most important British Celtic art object of the millennium”. We know how important we are for local people and visitors alike, yet it’s getting harder to keep operating in the current economic climate.
A new home for Malton Museum
Time is ticking for us as our current lease expires in 2027; that’s why earlier this year we unveiled plans for a new home. Our ambition is to repurpose a disused, partially Grade II-listed property at the heart of Malton’s historic market square, bringing it back into use for the town and create a new venue for community activities. Operated as an inn since the year rugby was invented, parts of the building date back to Richard the Lionheart’s reign: this building has been mostly empty for at least 20 years. We’re designing it with and for the people of Ryedale, introducing a new contemporary collecting approach to tell the story of modern-day Malton and ensure we’re more relevant than ever. It will give us space to bring schools in, hire spaces out, expand our retail offer, create our first permanent exhibition, and provide a hub for local creatives.
Community spirit is at the heart of our town and our work: Malton Museum’s new home will be at the heart of community-led regeneration where initiatives can incubate and flourish. We are restoring a key heritage asset to house a major cultural institution right in the heart of the York to Scarborough transport corridor – it’s a prime example for the county’s potential. We’re delivering for priorities in North Yorkshire’s Growth Plan, Cultural Strategy, Destination Management Plan, and the Malton and Norton Neighbour Plan but there’s a funding crisis in the museum sector that is hitting rural communities hardest. The priorities of the new combined authority established last year are at odds with the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy which barely mentions culture at all. Despite 19.5 million visits to independent museums generating £497 million in local spend annually, the culture sector is on life support and the prognosis for this month’s Autumn Statement isn’t looking good.
Funding our new museum
Only two major public funders can meaningfully support independent museums, and with a restoration price tag of £6m we have our work cut out for us. We’ve secured feasibility grants from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund to demonstrate the transformational benefits of our new home. Now we need to secure the cash to realise those ambitions. Community support has been nothing short of overwhelming, with packed out consultations and a growing fundraiser campaign. We will save an iconic part of Malton’s local heritage and continuing the legacy of this building’s late medieval origins as a community space, but we need Yorkshire behind us.
We are just one of the 138 museums in the towns, villages, and far-flung parts of our county that tell the story of the places where we live, give children and young people their sense of identity, provide a place for friends and family to meet, and help create a sense of purpose for volunteers. We rely on visitors, local businesses, charitable foundations, philanthropists, and our communities to keep us going.
So find out where your nearest independent museum is today: pay them a visit this weekend, explore their online shop for that Christmas gift with purpose, or donate to their fundraiser knowing it really does keep our lights on. Come and celebrate our centenary in 2035 at our brand new (very old) home: we’re here for you, but we need your support too.
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