LONDON, ENGLAND.-David Lammy, Minister for Culture, keynote address to Museums Association Conference: "I am delighted to be here today and it is a great privilege to be Minister for Culture at a time in which Britain's creativity and cultural heritage is thriving. Since taking up post in May I have been struck by the range and quality of museums' contributions to so many aspects of life in this country.

I regret that museums played so little a part in my early life. It wasn't until I was studying at SOAS and became a regular visitor to the British Museum that I really came to appreciate the singular role of museums in addressing issues of identity, history and almost every facet of life. More recently I have seen the fantastic work that Bruce Castle Museum is doing in my own constituency in Tottenham, working to engage local communities. I want everyone in this country and in particular young people, to be able to participate in such activities and to have the exposure to museums that I never had growing up.

Everyone here today understands the capacity museums have to contribute to enjoyment, to inspiration, to learning, to research and scholarship, to understanding, to regeneration, to reflection, to communication and to building dialogue and tolerance between individuals, communities and nations. All of those go a long way to improving the quality of life for people in this country and beyond. And I am sure that the 37% of people in this country who have visited a museum in the last 12 months understand museums' contribution to improving the quality of their lives.

But what about the other 63%? What are we doing, and what more can we do, to encourage them to visit, engage with, work for and appreciate the role of museums? If we are serious about broadening access to our collections and institutions – and I am very serious – then we need to work in partnership to reach those 63%. For those museums which are publicly funded (and I recognise that is most though not all museums) from universal taxation, we have a duty to aspire to universal access. I want every person in this country to be a champion for and a user of museums. In a fragmented, less deferential, more mobile, more diverse society where globalisation affects us all, the role of museums as places for reflection and understanding is more important than ever.

The central theme I want to address today is partnership. For all the successes of the museums sector – and I will come back to those in a moment - I think the key to even greater success and to wider recognition of museums' contribution to Britain and the world is more and stronger working in partnership.

We are too often in this country quick to criticise, to accentuate the negative and leave success unacknowledged. I firmly believe that the museums sector is one of this country's success stories, and I want to work with you to reinforce and extend that success. Of course there are challenges and problems ahead, and we should not shrink from them, but let me take a moment to acknowledge the successes I have seen at first hand over the last five months, and to identify the reasons I believe this is the most encouraging time for museums in the last 100 years.

First, we now have a stunning array of iconic buildings, both new and refurbished, in which our collections are housed across the country. For this, of course, a great deal of credit must go to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The hundreds of millions of pounds they have invested in the physical fabric of our museums has in many cases arrested the decay of those buildings, shored up the leaking roofs and created terrific, welcoming, inclusive spaces of a quality that give our collections, museum staff and public what they deserve. In partnership with architects, designers and their local communities, those buildings and the public spaces they inhabit have become more pleasurable places in which to spend time, and they have reinstilled a sense of civic pride.

I would give credit also to the enlightened Councillors of all political hues in local authorities across the country who have recognised the power of museums, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions to strengthen their local communities, stimulate regeneration and foster community cohesion.

And while I am on the subject of improving the buildings and spaces in which our collections are housed and exhibited, I should also recognise the immense contribution that private and corporate donors make to our museums. From the Wolfson Foundation, which works in partnership directly with my Department and matches our capital investment pound for pound, through Gulbenkian, Jerwood, Esmee Fairbairn, Getty and Paul Hamlyn, to the Clore Duffield Foundation which has provided funding for education spaces in museums all over the country, the philanthropic commitment of so many individuals, charities and businesses in this country, and indeed abroad, deserves all of our thanks. And possibly more than any single institution, we should recognise what is surely the pinnacle of selfless altruism, the anonymous donor!

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Another reason for optimism and celebration is the successful introduction of free entry to our national museums and galleries, and more recently to our university museums. We know that in 2004, nearly 6 million more visits were made to England's formerly charging national museums and galleries than in the year before entry charges were dropped (2000). This is a 75% increase in four years. Even Tesco would look enviously at that return. Some Jeremiahs will express anguish that six million more visits does not necessarily mean six million more visitors. And while there was always a risk that some element of this increase would be due to some people visiting more often, I do not see that this in itself is a bad thing. Of course I would like everyone in the country to visit and to benefit from our museums, but that does not mean those who already visit and want to do so more often should have their visits curtailed.

The third main reason for optimism about museums in this country is the Renaissance in the Regions programme. By the end of the current spending cycle we will have invested £147 million in the programme. I have seen the benefits of the programme at first hand and I hear increasingly that whereas seven years ago the talk was of decay and decline, that investment is now making a real difference on the ground. Museums and collections are being revitalised all over the country, and a corner has been turned. I appreciate there is still some way to go, and I share the desire of those who want to spread the benefits beyond the Hub museums to the wider museum community. I think it was right to begin with the Hub museums, but I know that thanks to elements of the Renaissance programme such as the funding of Museum Development Officer posts, and the establishment of Subject Specialist Networks, the wider community is already benefiting from Renaissance."