Bristol Museum & Art Gallery facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery


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Established	1823
Location	Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL, England, United Kingdom
Visitors	467,608 (2015/16)* Ranked 23rd nationally
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name: City museum and art gallery and attached front walls
Designated:	1 November 1966
Reference #:	1202478

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 center. It's managed by the city and, guess what? It's completely free to visit!

This museum is really special! The government has given it 'designated museum status' because its collections are so important. These special collections include amazing rocks and fossils (geology), beautiful art from Eastern countries, and lots of items about Bristol's own history, like fancy English pottery called delftware.

You can find sections on natural history, which means animals and plants, as well as archaeology from Bristol and around the world. The art gallery has paintings from all different times, including works by famous artists. There are also modern paintings that show what Bristol looks like today.

In the summer of 2009, the museum hosted a secret exhibition by the famous street artist Banksy. It had over 70 artworks, including moving robots and cool installations. It was his biggest show ever and quickly became famous worldwide!

The museum building itself is very old and beautiful, built in an Edwardian Baroque architecture style. It's so important that it's a Grade II* listed building. You can visit the museum from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–5pm. Remember, it's free!

Fun Events and Activities
A Look Back at History
Amazing Collections to Explore
Who Helps the Museum?
Other Cool Places to Visit
Gallery
See also

Fun Events and Activities

The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery always has exciting things happening throughout the year. They offer both free and paid events, like special exhibitions, workshops where you can get creative, and talks by experts about the art and history on display.

One of the biggest yearly celebrations is for Lunar New Year in February. This weekend event is packed with fun! You can see dancing dragons and lions, watch martial arts, enjoy traditional Chinese dances, listen to stories, follow family trails, and even make your own arts and crafts. You can always find out what's happening on the museum's website.

A Look Back at History

Bristol Museum entrance, 1904

A Bristol Biplane replica hangs from the ceiling of the main hall of the Museum. This aircraft was made in 1963 for the film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.

The museum's natural history galleries include a large selection of taxidermied animals

Sarcophagi in the Egyptology collections

Assyrian reliefs

The museum started way back in 1823 as the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and Art. It shared a new building on Park Street with another group called the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society. This first building was designed in a classical style by a famous architect named Sir Charles Robert Cockerell.

Later, in 1872, the Bristol Institution joined with the Bristol Library Society. They opened a new museum and library building at the top of Park Street. This new building was in a cool Venetian Gothic style. Over the years, the museum grew and needed more space.

In 1899, a wealthy tobacco businessman, Sir William Henry Wills, offered a lot of money to help build a brand new City Art Gallery. Work on this new building started in 1901 and it opened in February 1905. It was designed in an Edwardian Baroque style, with big halls and arched glass roofs. This new gallery brought together art with ancient items from Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

During World War II, in November 1940, the old museum building was badly damaged by a bomb. Sadly, about 17,000 natural history specimens were lost. The art gallery building was also hit but survived the fire. After the war, in 1945, the museum and art gallery officially became 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 in the city center. However, these plans were too expensive and were eventually stopped in 1971. Instead, money was used to improve the existing building, making it better for all the amazing collections it holds today.

In 2009, the museum hosted the famous "Banksy versus Bristol Museum" exhibition again, which was a huge success and brought lots of visitors.

Amazing Collections to Explore

Interior of Bristol Art Gallery. The large picture Noah's Ark (4 m by 4 m) was painted in c.1710 by the Dutch artist Jan Griffier.

The museum has many different galleries, each with unique treasures!

Art from Around the World

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 (AD 618–960) and Song (AD 960–1279) dynasties. You can also see a collection of famous Bristol blue glass.

Ancient Egypt and Beyond

The Egyptology gallery is super exciting! It has real mummies and other ancient items. You can also see incredible wall decorations called Assyrian Reliefs, which are over 3,000 years old! The museum has many important Egyptian antiquities from famous archaeological digs. A completely new Egyptian gallery opened in 2007, making it even better to explore.

Nature and Local History

In the natural history gallery, you can see examples of animals and plants from aquatic habitats in the southwest of England. There's an interactive map to help you find local wildlife spots and even a freshwater aquarium with fish from the region.

The museum also keeps many prehistoric and Roman artifacts found in the local area. These include items discovered before Chew Valley Lake was flooded, and finds from places like Pagans Hill Roman Temple and the Orpheus Mosaic.

More Art Galleries

Upstairs, you'll find even more art galleries. These include works by Old Masters, French artists, British artists, and modern art. There's also a special section dedicated to the "Bristol School" of artists.

In 2012, the museum received a huge collection of 50,000 items from the former British Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

Who Helps the Museum?

The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is part of a group called Bristol Museums. This group gets money from different places to keep the museums running. Some funding comes from the Bristol City Council and grants from Arts Council England. They also get money from donations, selling tickets and souvenirs, and renting out spaces for events.

Groups like the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery and the Friends of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery also help a lot. They support the museum by raising money and helping to buy new artworks and items for the collections.

Other Cool Places to Visit

Bristol Culture and Creative Industries also manages other fantastic 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. M Shed is a museum dedicated to telling the story of Bristol, which reopened in 2011.