Cllr Martin Hill, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, has responded to the recent City of Lincoln Council press release offering to house our registration services.
Cllr Hill said: "After consideration, whilst grateful to the City Council for the suggestion, it is difficult to see how this proposal could support the long term financial sustainability of the Usher Gallery itself, or the future vision for the wider service.
"Our proposal to place the registration service within the Usher Gallery, has not been driven by saving money on our office space (of which due to Covid we have plenty of ourselves), but to find the right location, so that we can develop our buildings to deliver a thriving and sustainable art offering within our community.
"The great success of the revival of Lincoln Castle shows what can be achieved and we are determined to build on that to create an engaging and inspirational cultural future for the entire County.
"As I suggested to Ric, this exciting vision, coordinating artistic, historical and aviation heritage, will only succeed if we all accept flexibility and imagination to move forward and gain external support.
"Our priority for the Usher Gallery, as part of a self-sustaining cultural offer, would be to respect the spirit of the Usher bequest by continuing to display the art collection in the building but also use the other large spaces available with imagination and attractiveness.
"The internal layout of the Usher Gallery and the constraints on its redevelopment imposed by the listed building status limits its potential as a forward looking gallery. It also lacks the modern security and environmental controls necessary to attract many loaned artworks.
“Given that the Council has limited capital to spend it would be better to focus spending activity in achieving this on the Collection building which has development-ready open plan space in the lower ground floor that is more suitable to how gallery spaces are built for modern audiences and which already attracts significantly greater visitor numbers.
"Our plans would also enable other parts of the Usher Collection for example the watches, to be displayed to the public, which is currently not possible.
"In summary, we have a bold exciting vision for the future of heritage in Lincolnshire and very much hope that City of Lincoln’s Usher Collection and building will be part of that but we will all need to provide unconditional support with the parameters we have already discussed."