The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has started talks to try and save the Wedgwood Museum's collections following a High Court judgement that it can be sold to help pay off the Wedgwood ceramics manufacturer's pension liabilities. The Stoke-on-Trent museum, winner of the 2009 Art Fund prize, was put into administration in 2010 when Waterford Wedgwood Potteries collapsed. Although the museum had been placed in the hands of a separate trust when the original Wedgwood Company was taken over to create the new company, by a twist of the law the £134m pension debt was transferred to the museum - and the collection considered an asset of the company.However, Bob Young of the administrators Begbies Traynor said it will try to raise funds to keep the collection, worth £18m, at the museum. "We have already held discussions with the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Victoria and Albert Museum, certain members of the Wedgwood family and other potential benefactors about raising funds," he said. "We will spend the next few months in intensive discussions with potential benefactors and the museum trustees to try to come up with a proposal that is acceptable to creditors." But the Museums Association's Head of Policy, Maurice Davies, said the DCMS should ensure the collection's future. "It is the government's responsibility to stop the collection being sold - through legislation or by putting its hand into its pocket," he said.Museums and galleries are hoping to benefi t from new tax incentives in which the Treasury can grant 30 per cent relief on the income or capital gains of those who give major works of art or historical objects to the nation. The new Cultural Gifts Scheme - known less formally as the Living Legacy Scheme - will run alongside the established Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, which allows relief on death duties for works left to the nation as bequests.There were fears for the future of Snibston Discovery Museum after its funder, Leicestershire County Council, cancelled a £3m application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The council is seeking to save £4.2m a year from its libraries and heritage budget. "A bid, had it been approved, would have resulted in the county council being left with contingent liabilities of about £4m that would have needed to be paid back to the HLF," a council report said. Arts News The latest heritage news and views. Compiled by Simon TaitWedgwood Museum appeals for rescueNew tax break benefi tsFears for Snibston £1m boost for Scotland's museumsScotland's museums are to get a boost of more than £1m from the Scottish government as part of the Year of Creative Scotland.Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop has announced that £970,000 in increased grants, plus £100,000 in capital funding, has been allocated for 2012-13 to be administered by Museums Galleries Scotland, and more than 260 museums and galleries are eligible to apply. "Despite deep cuts in public fi nances, I have prioritised my budget to minimise as far as possible the impact on our cultural and heritage sector," Hyslop said. 10 NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2012 www.nadfas.org.ukARTS NEWS

London's fi re authority is to close the London Fire Brigade Museum, but the collection is to be stored intact after the presentation of a petition signed by 1,000 people.The authority hopes to sell the building for £10m and save an annual £81,000 in running costs for the museum. The proposal is part of a budget-cutting exercise which aims to save £11.9m in total.London's Fire BrigadeMuseum to closeAlan Haydon, Director of the ground-breaking De La Warr Pavilion arts centre at Bexhill-on-Sea, died suddenly of cancer last year. He was 61.Recruited by Rother District Council to transform the derelict Modernist architectural icon - built by Mendelsohn and Chermayeff for the socialist peer Earl De La Warr and opened in 1935 - Alan Haydon created a mixed arts centre, led by visual art but which accommodated the 1,000-seat theatre originally installed in the listed building. It opened in 2005, having been transferred to a charitable trust, and drew 500,000 visitors in its fi rst year. Today, it still consistently attracts 350,000 visitors to its innovative exhibitions and events."Alan was a uniquely talented artistic director," said the trust's Chair, Steve Williams, "and one of that small group of gifted administrators who combined artistic fl air, risk taking and responsibility in equal measure."Kids in Museums, the charity that encourages museums to be family friendly, has launched a new 20-point manifesto of recommendations to follow, this time with an emphasis on teenaged visitors. Compiled from visitors' comments, the new fi rst point in the fourth annual manifesto list calls on museums to "tell tales together" - to create stories that relate objects and Tony Hill, Director of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, and Colin Philpot, Director of the National Media Museum in Bradford, are both to step down following decisions involving the Science Museum. The MOSI, which is local authority funded, is to merge with the National Museum of Science and Industry group, which includes York's National Railway Museum and London's Science Museum as well as the NMM, whose senior management is being scaled down. The merger would offer the Arts & Business, the arts sponsorship agency, has merged with the charity Business in the Community following the loss of its £7m annual government subsidy last year. Chief Executive Colin Tweedy has stood down. A&B will continue to campaign for business support for the arts, and is to present a new category within the Business in the Community Awards for Excellence - the Arts & Business Award for companies that have developed sustained partnerships with cultural organisations, and that demonstrate signifi cant benefi t and engagement with employees and local communities. Museums manifesto addresses teensLeft: Alan Haydon at the De La Warr PavilionDe La Warr director dies:Alan Haydon 1949-2011Directors go in Science Museum changesManchester museum a more secure future and better access to funding, its trustees said.Tony Hill, who has been with MSI since 2005, oversaw the recent £9m redevelopment of the museum. A&B merges with charityvisitors. But the fourth point addresses the sector that is often seen as the most resistant to the museum experience. "Invite teenagers into your gang," it says. "Provide a place for them to hang out. Set up youth panels. Ask them how they want to be involved. Museums can lead the way in letting people know the contribution teenagers make."In Colin Philpot's place at Bradford will be a Head of Museum, answering to the Deputy Director of the Science Museum in London, where exhibition programming will be done.www.nadfas.org.uk NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2012 11 ARTS NEWS