[BCMA] 2021 report on the Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

*The Department of Canadian Heritage is pleased to announce the release of
the 2021 report on the Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions
(GCSHI), which collected financial and operating information for the 2020
data year on not-for-profit heritage institutions, including museums, art
galleries, archives, historic sites, zoos and botanical gardens.* The 2021
survey recorded the initial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the
associated public health measures which forced the temporary closure of
heritage organizations across the country.

The Department would like to thank all heritage institutions who responded
to the 2021 survey. Your input contributed to making the survey a success.
Please take a moment to discover some of the latest results from the 2021
GCSHI report HERE
<https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/corporate/publications/general-publications/about-survey-heritage-institutions/2021-report.html?campaign=pch-pch-HeritageInstitutions-2023-2024&medium=smo&source=fb&content=HeritageInstitutions-Report2021Survey&date=20230717>

Highlights from the survey include…
○ 87% of all museums and other heritage institutions in Canada were
temporarily forced to close their doors due to COVID-19 public health
measures in 2020. On average, heritage institutions reported having to
remain closed for approximately 5 months.
○ Temporary closures and social distancing restrictions during 2020 meant
that heritage institutions saw fewer visitors come through their doors.
There were only 16.9 million visits in 2020, a substantial decrease of
nearly 79% from the 79 million visits in 2017.
○ Temporary closures due to public health measures in 2020 meant that
heritage institutions were not able to generate as much income from earned
revenue sources as in previous years. Earned revenue accounted for
approximately $593 million (24%) of total revenue for all heritage
institutions in 2020; a decrease of nearly $276 million or 32% from 2017.
○ All three levels of government increased spending toward the heritage
sector in 2020 to $1.5 billion collectively: an increase of nearly $170
million (13%) from 2017. The federal government provided the bulk of this
increase, contributing over $131 million or 77% of this new temporary
spending through pandemic support measures (approximately 70% of all
heritage institutions indicated that they had received financial support).
○ Overall, approximately 28% of organizations indicated that they had laid
off paid staff at some point in 2020.
○ Employment in the heritage sector was negatively affected throughout the
height of the pandemic, employing just 32,150 people during 2020, a
decrease of nearly 14% (down approximately 5,070 jobs) from 2017 when
employment figures reached over 37,200.
○ The heritage sector is heavily dependant on volunteers. In fact,
approximately 20% of organizations are solely run by volunteers. 2020 saw a
substantial decrease in volunteers (down 51% to 56,000 volunteers), and
volunteer hours (down 61% to 3.6 million hours) from 2017. This the
equivalent loss of 1,823 full-time positions.
○ Online virtual visits to heritage institutions experienced a less severe
decrease than overall physical visits during the pandemic. There were over
161 million online visits overall throughout 2020, a decrease of
approximately 36% from pre-pandemic levels (254 million online visits).
○ During the pandemic heritage institutions concentrated their efforts
towards enhancing their digital activities, thus increasing online access
to their archival records, artefacts, programing, retail, etc.
Approximately two thirds of heritage institutions (68%) had indicated they
enhanced their overall digital activities in 2020.
○ 56% of institutions said they increased/introduced social media.
○ 40% said they increased/introduced online public programing.
○ 36% worked towards digitizing their collections (i.e., artefacts or
archives).
○ 35% improved/cleaned existing collections records (i.e., data
quality/accuracy on collections)
○ 33% of all institutions increased/introduced online public access to
digitized holdings or exhibitions.
○ 24% enhanced digital preservation activities (i.e., maintain hard drives,
etc.).
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