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Bristol Museum & Art Gallery facts for kids
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| Established | 1823 |
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| Location | Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL, England, United Kingdom |
| Visitors | 467,608 (2015/16)* Ranked 23rd nationally |
The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a super cool place in Bristol, England, where you can explore amazing art and history! It's located in an area called Clifton, not too far from the city centre. Guess what? It's run by the Bristol City Council, and it's FREE to get in!
This museum is so special that the government has given it 'designated museum' status. This means its collections are super important and protected. Some of its most important collections include rocks and fossils (geology), art from Eastern countries, and lots of things about Bristol's own history, like fancy old pottery called English delftware. In 2012, it became one of the top museums supported by Arts Council England.
Inside, you'll find sections on natural history (think animals and plants!) and amazing finds from archaeology (things from ancient times). The art gallery has paintings from all different periods, including famous artists and modern pictures of Bristol.
In the summer of 2009, the museum hosted a secret exhibition by the famous street artist Banksy. It had over 70 artworks, including cool moving robots and installations. It was his biggest show ever and quickly became famous worldwide!
The museum building itself is very old and beautiful. It was built in an Edwardian Baroque architecture style and is considered a special 'grade II*' listed building by English Heritage.
You can visit the museum from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. It's also open on Bank Holiday Mondays and during Bristol school holidays.
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Awesome Events and Activities
The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery always has fun things happening! They offer free and paid events throughout the year. These include big exhibitions that last for weeks, hands-on workshops, and talks by museum experts.
One of the biggest yearly events is the celebration for Chinese New Year in February. It's a weekend full of excitement with dancing dragons and lions, martial arts shows, traditional Chinese dances, storytelling, and lots of arts and crafts for families. You can find out about all the current and past events on the museum's website.
A Look Back: The Museum's History
The museum started way back in 1823! It was first called the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and Art. It shared a new building near Park Street with another group called the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society. This first building was designed in a classical style.
Later, in 1871, the Bristol Institution joined with the Bristol Library Society. A new museum and library building opened in 1872. This building was designed in a Venetian Gothic style.
By the 1890s, the museum was having money troubles. So, in 1894, the whole museum and its buildings were taken over by the Bristol city corporation. This helped keep the museum going!
In 1899, a rich tobacco businessman, Sir William Henry Wills, offered money to help build a brand new City Art Gallery. Work on this beautiful new building started in 1901 and it opened in February 1905. It was designed in an Edwardian Baroque style. This new building was where art and ancient items from Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome were displayed.
Sadly, during World War II, in November 1940, the original 1872 museum building was badly damaged by a bomb and caught fire. Many natural history items were lost. However, the Art Gallery building, though also hit, survived. It reopened in 1941 and started housing some of the museum's surviving collections.
After the war, in 1947, the damaged old museum building was sold to Bristol University. The museum and art gallery were then formally split into separate parts, even though they were in the same building. The lower floor became the Museum, and the upper floors became the Art Gallery.
For many years, there were plans to build a completely new museum, but it was too expensive. So, in 1971, money was put into making the existing building much better. This included updating everything and creating proper storage for all the amazing collections.
In 2009, the museum once again hosted the famous Banksy exhibition, which brought lots of visitors and attention from all over the world!
Amazing Collections to Explore
The museum has so many cool things to see!
- Art Galleries: On the top floor, you'll find art galleries with a special collection of Chinese Glass. There's also the "Schiller collection" of Eastern Art, which includes beautiful Chinese ceramics from different time periods, like the Tang and Song Dynasties. You can also see a collection of famous Bristol blue glass.
- Ancient Egypt and Assyria: The Egyptology gallery is super exciting! It has real mummies and other ancient Egyptian items. You can also see amazing Assyrian reliefs, which are carved stone pictures that are over 3,000 years old! This gallery was completely rebuilt and reopened in 2007.
- Natural History: This gallery shows you what aquatic (water) habitats are like in the south west of England. There's an interactive map to learn about local wildlife and even a freshwater aquarium with fish from the region.
- Local History and Archaeology: The museum also keeps many ancient items found in the local area. These include things from prehistoric times and the Roman period, like finds from Pagans Hill Roman Temple and the beautiful Orpheus Mosaic from Newton St Loe.
- Artworks: Upstairs, you'll find different art galleries with Old Masters, French art, British art, Modern Art, and art from the Bristol School.
- British Empire and Commonwealth Museum Collection: In 2012, the museum received the entire collection of the former British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, which has about 50,000 items!
Friends of the Museum
There are special groups called "Friends of Bristol Art Gallery" and "Friends of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery." These groups help support the museum and art gallery. Since 1947, the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery have helped the gallery get over 300 new artworks!
Future Plans
The museum is always looking to the future! In 2014, Arts Council England announced that Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives would receive about £4.7 million over three years. This money helps the museum continue to offer amazing experiences for everyone.
Other Museums in Bristol
Bristol Culture runs several other cool museums and sites in Bristol. These include M Shed, Blaise Castle House Museum, the Red Lodge Museum, the Georgian House Museum, Bristol Archives, and Kings Weston Roman Villa. The Bristol Industrial Museum, which closed in 2006, reopened in 2011 as M Shed, telling the story of Bristol's history.