The
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a large
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
and
art galleryAn art gallery or art museum is a space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museum can be public or private but what distinguishes a Museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, photographs, illustrations,...
in
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London, and east of Cardiff.With an estimated population of 416,400 for the unitary authority in mid-2007, and a surrounding urban area with an estimated 561,500 residents, it is England's sixth, and...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is run by the city council with no entrance fee. It holds designated museum status, granted by the national government to protect outstanding museums. It is situated in
CliftonClifton is the name of both one of the thirty-five council wards in the City of Bristol in England, and of a large suburb of the city that lies mostly within that ward...
, about from the city centre.
The museum includes sections on
natural historyNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
, local, national and international
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
, and local industry. The art gallery contains works from all periods, including many by internationally famous artists, as well a collection of modern paintings of Bristol.
The building is of Edwardian
Baroque architectureBaroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and...
and has been designated by
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a grade II*
listed building.
The Museum and Art Gallery's origins lie in the foundation, in 1823, of the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and Art, sharing brand-new premises at the bottom of
Park StreetPark Street in Bristol runs from College Green up a steep incline northwards to join Park Row at the southern apex of the Clifton Triangle. Looking up the street there is a dramatic view of the Wills Memorial Building....
(a downhill from the current site) with the slightly older Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society.
The
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a large
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
and
art galleryAn art gallery or art museum is a space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museum can be public or private but what distinguishes a Museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, photographs, illustrations,...
in
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London, and east of Cardiff.With an estimated population of 416,400 for the unitary authority in mid-2007, and a surrounding urban area with an estimated 561,500 residents, it is England's sixth, and...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is run by the city council with no entrance fee. It holds designated museum status, granted by the national government to protect outstanding museums. It is situated in
CliftonClifton is the name of both one of the thirty-five council wards in the City of Bristol in England, and of a large suburb of the city that lies mostly within that ward...
, about from the city centre.
The museum includes sections on
natural historyNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
, local, national and international
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
, and local industry. The art gallery contains works from all periods, including many by internationally famous artists, as well a collection of modern paintings of Bristol.
The building is of Edwardian
Baroque architectureBaroque architecture, starting in the early 17th century in Italy, took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and...
and has been designated by
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a grade II*
listed building.
History
The Museum and Art Gallery's origins lie in the foundation, in 1823, of the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and Art, sharing brand-new premises at the bottom of
Park StreetPark Street in Bristol runs from College Green up a steep incline northwards to join Park Row at the southern apex of the Clifton Triangle. Looking up the street there is a dramatic view of the Wills Memorial Building....
(a downhill from the current site) with the slightly older Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society. The
neoclassicalNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque...
building was designed by Sir
Charles Robert CockerellCharles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist, and writer. Early in his life, he trained in the architectural practice of his father, Samuel Pepys Cockerell. One of his earliest jobs found Cockerell assisting Robert Smirke in rebuilding the Covent Garden Theatre...
(1788–1863), who was later to complete the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and build St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, and was later used as the Freemasons Hall.
In April 1871 the Bristol Institution merged with the Bristol Library Society and on 1 April 1872 a new combined museum and library building in
Venetian GothicVenetian Gothic is a term given to a style of architecture combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Arab influences. The style originates in 14th century Venice where the confluence of Byzantine style from Constantinople met Arab influence from Moorish Spain...
style was opened at the top of Park Street. The lease on the former Bishop’s College building next door, which had been the Library Society's home since 1855, passed to the local army reserve unit, whose
drill hallA drill hall is a place such as a building or a hangar where soldiers practice and perform military drill. In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, the term was also used for the whole headquarters building of a military reserve unit, which usually incorporated such a hall...
lay behind it; it became the Victoria (later Salisbury) Club and a restaurant. The old Institution building was sold to the Freemasons. Although the new building was extended in 1877, by the 1890s the Museum and Library Association was struggling financially, and even unable to pay its curator,
Edward WilsonEdward Wilson may refer to:*Edward Adrian Wilson , English Antarctic explorer*E. O. Wilson, Edward Osbourne Wilson, , American entomologist and biologist...
(1848—1898). Negotiations with the city government culminated in the transfer of the whole organization and premises to Bristol city government on 31 May 1894. Wilson remained Curator until his death – only this time he was actually paid!
However in June 1899 the site of the Salisbury Club was offered for sale to the city, the tobacco baron, Sir William Henry Wills (1830—1911, later Lord Winterstoke) offering £10,000 to help buy the site and build a new City Art Gallery on it. Designed by Sir
Frederick WillsSir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet was a businessman in the United Kingdom. He was a director of W. D. & H. O. Wills, which later merged into the Imperial Tobacco Company....
in an
Edwardian BaroqueThe term Edwardian Baroque refers to the Neo-Baroque architectural style of many public buildings built in the British Empire during the Edwardian era ....
style work on the new building started in 1901, and opened in February 1905. It was built in a rectangular open plan in 2 sections each consisting of a large hall with
barrel-vaultedA barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
glazed roofs, separated by a double staircase. It incorporated a Museum of Antiquities, as it had been decided during the planning stage that
AssyrianAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
,
EgyptianAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
,
GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
and
RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
antiquities should be grouped with art in the new structure, rather than remaining with the
natural historyNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
collections that remained in the old building. Interestingly, stone tools continued to reside with the
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
collections within natural history. Yet more space became available to museum displays when
Bristol Central LibraryBristol Central Library Bristol Central Library Bristol Central Library ((located at ) is a historic building on the south side of College Green, Bristol, England.It opened in 1906 following a bequest by Vincent Stuckey Lean of £50,000. An architectural competition was organised and won by the firm...
moved down the hill to
College GreenCollege Green is a public open space in Bristol, England. On the south side of the Green stand the Bristol Central Library, Abbey Gatehouse ; Bristol Cathedral; the facades of four 18th century terraced houses, now converted into offices; the Royal Hotel . On the northwest side of the Green...
in 1906. The vacant rooms were reconstructed as
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
and
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
galleries.
In 1913, the army reserve's drill hall, which now lay between the rear of the Art Gallery and the rapidly expanding
University of BristolThe University of Bristol is a university in Bristol, England. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876...
, was purchased by the two institutions, three-fifths of the complex falling to the Museum and Art Gallery, the rest to the University. Unfortunately, the outbreak of war in 1914 put paid to any plans for new building; indeed, the Upper Museum Room (geology) was cleared in 1916 to became a ‘Soldiers Room’ to entertain convalescents and the Egyptian Room ‘served for reading and writing and for the delivery of special demonstrations. However, after being used for storage for over a decade, it proved possible to demolish the Drill Hall to permit a rearward extension of the Art Gallery. This was funded by Sir
George Alfred WillsGeorge Alfred Wills was a President of Imperial Tobacco and the head of an eminent Bristol family. He was the son of Henry Overton Wills III and Alice Hopkinson and was educated at Mill Hill School before joining his father’s business, he eventually became the managing director.He was responsible...
(1854-1928, a cousin of Lord Winterstoke) and completed in 1930.
The 1872/1877 Museum building was gutted by fire following a bomb hit on the night of 24/25 November 1940, during the
Bristol BlitzBristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II. The presence of the Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company made it a target for bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe who were able to trace a course up River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the...
, some 17,000 of the natural history specimens being lost. The 1930 extension of the Art Gallery was also hit, but luckily escaped the conflagration, although suffering badly from blast damage. Nevertheless, the Art Gallery partially reopened in February 1941, now also housing some of the Museum's surviving material on a ‘temporary’ basis. Although now housed in the same building, from April 1945, the Museum and Art Gallery were formally split into separate institutions with the lower floor becoming the Museum and the upper floors the Art Gallery. As part of this restructuring, the
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
and
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
collections were transferred from the Art Gallery to the Museum.
In February 1947, the remains of the old Museum building (with the exception of the undamaged lecture theatre) were sold to Bristol University: it was then rebuilt as its dining rooms, later becoming
Brown's RestaurantBrown's Restaurant is on Queens Street, Bristol.It was built between 1867 and 1871 by Foster and Archibald Ponton. It was constructed with yellow brick with red brick decoration and limestone dressings, and has a pantile hipped roof...
. The sale of the building in 1947 reflected the intention that new premises would soon be provided for the Museum and the Art Gallery; planning began in 1951, but then dragged on for the next twenty years, during which time the old buildings received minimal attention, other than the insertion of
mezzaninesIn architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony...
to gain additional space.
Meanwhile, various proposals had been made for new museum buildings in
Castle ParkThe English city of Bristol has a number of parks and public open spaces.-Large parks:Bristol City Council own or manage three major parks: The Downs, Blaise Castle and Ashton Court....
, in the very centre of Bristol, overlooking the
river AvonThe River Avon is a river in the south west of England. Because of a number of other Rivers Avon in England, this river is often also known as the Lower Avon or Bristol Avon...
. However, spiraling costs and funding difficulties meant that in 1971 the plans were abandoned and a smaller amount of money was put into upgrading the existing building. Wholesale refurbishment was required, including rewiring, rearranging offices, creating laboratories and dividing up and furnishing the basement to provide proper storage for the reserve collections.
In the summer of 2009 the museum hosted an exhibition by
BanksyBanksy is a quasi-anonymous English graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy...
, featuring more than 70 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet. It was developed in secrecy and with no advance publicity.
Collection
Today, the top floor art galleries include a collection of Chinese Glass and the "Schiller collection" of
Eastern ArtEastern art history is devoted to the arts of the Far East and includes a vast range of influences from various cultures and religions. The emphasis is on art history amongst many diverse cultures in Asia. Developments in Eastern art historically parallel those in Western art, in general a few...
donated by Max Schiler, the Recorder of Bristol from 1935 to 1946 and collected by his older brother Ferdinand N Schiler. It contains a range of Chinese ceramics wares spanning different dynastic periods. Particularly fine pieces include a number of white, light blue and green-glazed (
Ying Qing and QingbaiYingqing ware is Chinese porcelain, primarily from the Song Dynasty, made in the vicinity of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, and also in Hebei. It is known as the first porcelain to be produced in quantity....
) wares from the
TangThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
(AD 618-960) and
SongThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(AD 960-1279) dynasties. It also holds a collection of
Bristol blue glassBristol Blue Glass has been made in Bristol, England since the 17th century.- History :During the late 1700s Richard Champion, a Bristol merchant and potter, making porcelain, was working with a chemist, William Cookworthy...
.
The
EgyptologyEgyptology Egyptology Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek , -logia. , is a major field of archaeology, the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century...
gallery contains mummies besides other items and a wall decoration made over 3,000 years ago - the Assyrian Reliefs, which were transferred from the
Royal West of England AcademyThe Royal West of England Academy is an art gallery where Queens Road meets Whiteladies Road, in Bristol, England.- History :The academy was the first art gallery in Bristol...
. It also has a significant collection of Egyptian antiquities, a considerable number derived from the excavations of the
Egypt Exploration SocietyThe Egypt Exploration Society is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology....
and British School of Archaeology in Egypt. A completely rebuilt Egyptian gallery opened in 2007.
A natural history gallery contains examples of aquatic habitats in the south west of England and an interactive map of local wildlife sites and a freshwater aquarium containing fish typical of the region.
The museum also holds many of the prehistoric and
RomanRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
artifacts recovered before the flooding of
Chew Valley LakeChew Valley Lake is a large reservoir in the Chew Valley, Somerset, England, and the fifth-largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom , with an area of 1,200 acres...
, and other local archaeological finds such as those from
Pagans Hill Roman TempleThe Pagans Hill Roman Temple was a Romano-British-style temple excavated on Pagans Hill at Chew Stoke in the English county of Somerset.-Excavations:...
and the Orpheus Mosaic from
Newton Saint LoeNewton Saint Loe is a small Somerset village and civil parish located between Bath & Bristol in the South West of England. The majority of the village is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The parish has a population of 631.-History:...
.
Friends of Bristol Art Gallery
The society has supported the gallery since 1947, acquiring over 300 works of art for the gallery.
Future development
In November 2007 Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in partnership with the
ArnolfiniThe Arnolfini is an arts centre in Bristol, England. It has a changing programme of exhibitions, live art and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and discussions and cinema. The exhibitions are free...
was one of five successful institutions to win an additional £1 million from the Art Fund. This will be used to reflect the city's history as a port and "a city of international transaction", to purchase work by artists from
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, such as Meschac Gaba and
Romuald HazouméRomauald Hazoumé is an artist from the Republic of Bénin, best known for his work La Bouche du Roi, a reworking of the 1789 image of the slave ship Brookes....
, from
BeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north; its short coastline to the south leads to the Bight of Benin....
, Hu Xiaoyuan,
Xu ZhenXu Zhen is a Shanghai-based artist.-Biography:Xu Zhen's art-making has crossed over various disciplines, from installation, photography, video to performance and painting...
and Lu Chunsheng from China, Sherif El Azma from
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, Sigalit Landau from
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, and Huit Facettes of
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
. The theme of the Bristol partnership will be ‘Glass Walls: Reflections and Interactions’.
Other museums
Other museums administered by Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery are
Blaise Castle HouseBlaise Castle is an 18th century mansion house and estate near Henbury in Bristol , England. Blaise Castle was immortalised by being described as "the finest place in England" in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey....
, the
Red LodgeThe Red Lodge Museum is an historic building in Bristol, England.It is open to the public is a branch of Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.- History :...
, the
Georgian HouseThe Georgian House is a historic building in Great George Street, Bristol, England. It is open to the public and has been a branch of Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, since it was presented to the city as a museum in 1937...
,
Kings Weston Roman VillaKings Weston Roman Villa is a Roman villa near Lawrence Weston in the north west of Bristol. The villa was discovered during the construction of the Lawrence Weston housing estate in 1947. Two distinct buildings were discovered, the Eastern building was fully excavated , the other lies mostly...
and Bristol Industrial Museum which closed in 2006, and is due to reopen in 2011 as the Museum of Bristol.
External links