The new UK arts minister, Ruth Mackenzie, will oversee museums as part of her brief at the government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), reports Museums Journal. Mackenzie has also been handed responsibility for libraries and cultural property at the DCMS, according to the Museums Association publication.
She will reportedly cover sponsorship of the arm’s length public funding body Arts Council England (the DCMS provides core funding to ACE). Sponsorship comprises maintaining "an effective working relationship between departments and public bodies", says the DCMS.
Crucially Mackenzie takes charge as the Labour government continues to debate whether national museums in England should introduce admission fees for overseas visitors.
The DCMS declined to confirm Mackenzie’s brief, saying that “ministerial portfolios will be set out in due course”. Mackenzie was made a peer and subsequently appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state for the arts at DCMS by the new prime minister Andy Burnham in July. The secretary of state for culture, Lisa Nandy, remains in post while Ian Murray also remains minister of state for DCMS after first being appointed in September 2025.
“We welcome the appointment of Ruth Mackenzie as minister with responsibility for museums and look forward to working with her on the new strategy for the sector,” Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, says in a statement.
Mackenzie was previously the director of the Cultural Olympiad in the UK for the 2012 Olympics, for which she was awarded a CBE. She has also held leadership roles for performing arts festivals in Chichester, Manchester, Amsterdam and Adelaide.
She served as director of the Scottish Opera in the late 1990s, and artistic director of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris from 2017 to 2020. A Scottish parliamentary report published in 2000 criticised the management of the opera house during her tenure; according to the BBC, Mackenzie described the report as “untrue and unfair”. Mackenzie was, meanwhile, dismissed quite suddenly from the Châtelet theatre, with French media citing an unnamed source who alleged a "managerial and financial problem”. Following her dismissal, she told The Guardian that an independent inquiry into her management “explicitly stated there was no evidence of any wrongdoing”. She also said: “There isn’t a cultural institution in the world that isn’t having financial problems right now [2020], but that’s not my fault.”
Both Mackenzie and the DCMS were contacted for comment.
Last year, Mackenzie served as director of arts at the British Council, with the chief executive Scott McDonald commending her “outstanding contribution” on X following the announcement that she would be departing the British Council for her DCMS appointment.