Council leader shares details of new home for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

By Swindon Link - 1 December 2022

CommunityPolitics
  • Swindon Council Leader David Renard

    Swindon Council Leader David Renard

A column by Swindon Borough Leader David Renard.

Delivering a new home for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery has been a top priority for the council ever since it became apparent its previous base at Apsley House in Old Town was no longer fit for purpose.

As many of you may know, the council’s Cabinet agreed to dedicate the entire first floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid Street for the new facility and work has been taking place ever since to get the plans drawn up and the necessary permissions in place to enable the conversion of the offices into gallery space.

At the time of writing this column, I’m delighted to confirm that we have just received Listed Building consent to make the alterations to the 1930s Art Deco Grade II listed building.

We have already put tenders out for the work and we expect the first of our contractors to be on site before Christmas.

One of the benefits of having the Civic Offices as the new home of the museum and art gallery is its accessibility.

We want to make sure that everyone has a chance to see our fantastic collections and one of the most important pieces of refurbishment work will be to install a brand-new lift so those with mobility issues or families with buggies and prams have easy access to the first floor of the building.

The new museum and art gallery will create extra space for permanent and temporary exhibitions - around 40 percent - and this will enable us to provide formal and informal learning programmes for schools.

There will also be improved working conditions and additional areas for staff, volunteers and researchers. This will give us the chance to restart the museum and art gallery’s volunteer programme.

We will be creating a school learning and lunchroom, which will also be used to host museum events, especially those aimed at families and focusing on the museum and art gallery’s extensive collections.

As it is close to the town centre, it will make the new facility easier to get to and we will also have dedicated coach parking, which will make it more convenient for school children to see the collections.

The temporary home would be used as a medium-term solution for the museum and art gallery while plans to build a purpose-built facility as part of Swindon’s proposed Cultural Quarter come forward.

My Cabinet colleague, Matty Courtliff, is extremely passionate about delivering the best facility possible for local residents, and I know he was really pleased to be able to present the plans for the new museum and art gallery to members of the public at a special session a few weeks ago.

The feedback to the plans and what we aim to achieve has been really positive and we will update you on how the work is progressing over the coming months.

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