Museum and Art Gallery campaigners at council meeting

Campaigners calling for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to remain made their views clear at a borough council meeting.

Members of the Save our Museum and Art Gallery organisation and their supporters met outside the Civic Offices shortly before the meeting.

The council says the Museum and Art Gallery building, Apsley House in Old Town, is no longer fit for purpose, but a petition opposing closure has so far attracted some 5,000 signatures.

Campaign spokesperson Linda Kasmaty, who is also a member of South Swindon Parish Council, delivered a speech to councillors.

She said: "The petition you have received today is a reflection of the strong feelings aroused by this council's proposal to sell Apsley House and consign the town's museum and art collections to limbo for the next ten years, or however long it takes to build the new Art Pavilion as part of Swindon's grand vision of a new 'Cultural Quarter'.

"Why sell Apsley House before a suitable replacement has been built?

"The petition was started because Swindon Museum and Art Gallery currently housed at Apsley House in Old Town is under threat of permanent closure, its contents being put into storage, and the building sold as ‘surplus to requirements’. The museum has been housed there for the last 90 years, and the art collection for the last 60 years.  Apsley House is a much loved facility despite its shortcomings, a lovely place to visit, and could be improved with some creative thinking.  Please reconsider before passing it into private ownership; it is to use a hackneyed term, a jewel in Swindon’s crown.

"Apsley House is a public building, it is not surplus to requirements, and it’s shameful that the council think of selling it now. The money realised from the sale, would not be used for years on the new Art Pavilion and museum. It can only be worth more in years to come?

"Swindon needs a museum and art gallery, it does have one, let’s open it. It’s a scandal that a town with 250,000 population contemplates closing its museum and art gallery for an indefinite period. Everyone in the art world I have spoken to has expressed disbelief at these plans, and said surely that couldn’t happen?"

Cllr Kasmaty turned to a recent borough council report suggesting that some of the collections be housed on the first floor of the Civic Offices which would be converted.

She said: "Effectively then, the latest plans are to use the £400,000 allocated in 2019 to Apsley House, be spent on moving all collections from Apsley House, relocating some to the Civic Offices and putting the rest in storage. There have been to date no costings for any of this, no specifics. In their current state, the Civic Offices are not suitable to house SMAG. The space comprises office rooms off a corridor and the council's proposal to improve the space 'incrementally' does not imply that the space will do justice to the art collection any time soon. Out of sight, out of mind? This is without considering the security implications of public access to the building.

There is a proposal from the Parish Council that after discussions with SBC, they would be interested in the short term transfer of Apsley House to South Swindon Parish Council so they could reopen it as soon as possible. This would seem to be an ideal solution for resolving the loss of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

It is really important for Swindon and its environs that we have a working museum and art gallery in the interim between now and when the Cultural Quarter is built. We need to give people confidence that we know how to look after our inheritance, and going forward we can acquire and display bequeathed items. At the moment I have emails on an almost daily basis from people choosing to not leave art works or ceramic collections to Swindon. We need to wake up and not sleep walk our way into being entirely off the cultural map of the UK.

"How can we even imagine a town the size of Swindon, and growing, without a Museum and Art Gallery?"

Opponents of closure include Swindon Museum of Computing co-founder Jeremy Holt, who said before the meeting: "I know how long it takes to set up a museum - I'm one of the few people who do know this.

"It takes a long time to get these things off the ground, and if a bunch of here-today-gone-tomorrow politicians or council employees with no vision whatsoever decide to close a museum, I think this is a travesty a calumny, and it's a calumny on the generation of 1930 who proudly set up the museum, the generation of 1964 who proudly set up the art gallery - and the generation of 2021 shouldn't be the people to close it.

"We recognise that Apsley house is not perfect, and we look forward to better facilities in the cultural quarter. But the fact of the matter is that there is an enormous chasm, the width of which is unknown, that we will be trying to cross if the Museum and Art Gallery is closed now.

"Because of the council's activities we have already lost an enormous bequest that would otherwise have been for generations to come."

Also demonstrating before the meeting and speaking out during it were sheltered housing residents campaigning for the return of full time wardens.

They are supported by community union ACORN, whose secretary, Kate Linnegar, said: "The residents were furious. It’s easy to understand why. They’ve worked very hard to try to get their concerns taken seriously but nothing seems to work. 

"These are often people with mobility and health issues, so it’s not always easy for them to take part. The wardens are very important to them. Wardens save lives and make the schemes happy and safe communities. 

"No wonder they are prepared to fight for reinstatement of full-time wardens.