THE Friends of The Bowes Museum charity is to close after 75 years of service.
Members of the group, which operates independently of the museum, voted overwhelmingly to wind down at a special meeting this week because of diminishing volunteer numbers and decreasing income.
Chairman Colin Hardy told the meeting there had been difficulty in “recruiting and sustaining” trustees as well as attracting volunteers to leadership roles.
He added that in March last year there had been 13 trustees but by June that had reduced to 11 and at the time of the meeting there were only nine.
Mr Hardy said: “Over several years, we have seen steadily declining memberships, a fall in income, a rising age profile of members and increased difficulty recruiting volunteers to become trustees.
“These factors, set against a wider context of changing societal pressures and a post-covid shift in people’s leisure habits, prompted us to take independent advice from consultants in the museum and heritage sector.
“The prospect of seeing Friends slide deeper into decline was not the way anyone of us would want the story of such an important group to end. This vote to close allows the group to wind up its affairs with dignity while honouring the achievements of the past 75 years.”
The Bowes Museum’s executive director Hannah Fox told the meeting that should members choose to dissolve the charity’s members would be given a Friends Alumni status which would offer them unlimited access to the museum for the duration of their membership.
In addition the museum aims to make an art acquisition to publicly celebrate the legacy of the Friends’ support.
Of the 103 members present at the meeting 95 voted in favour of dissolving the group, with eight against.
As a result of the vote, the charity’s £170,000 assets are to be held in a Friends Legacy Fund which will support The Bowes Museum’s programmes.
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