Municipal grant for TwentseWelle in Enschede increased by EUR 600,000

Monday, 1 February 2010 Click here for more information

The Municipality of Enschede intends to raise the operating grant for Museum TwentseWelle by EUR 600,000 as of 2011. This is the outcome of consultations held between the museum and the Municipality of Enschede over the last month. TwentseWelle opened its doors in the spring of 2008, but in the first year, the museum already ran up an operating deficit of approximately EUR 1 million. When initially establishing the grant, the Municipality took insufficient account of the higher staff costs and operational costs of the new museum building. Berns MuseumManagement has carried out an operational survey on behalf of the Municipality and the museum. Based in part on a benchmark of museums of a comparable size and ambition, as well as on the basis of an analysis of the actual management costs of TwentseWelle, the advice was to substantially increase the operating grant (presently EUR 1.3 million per year). In addition, Berns MuseumManagement proposed to start taking the depreciation costs for the museum's interior furnishings into account in the operating budget. Referring to the report, the Municipality reached the conclusion that the annual operating grant needs to be increased by EUR 600,000. In addition, the Municipality of Enschede intends to reserve separate funds to allow for the financing of the necessary replacement investments (in IT, among other things) on behalf of the public presentations. TwentseWelle is very satisfied with this decision, as it puts an end to the uncertainty surrounding the operation of the brand new and successful museum.

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