Swindon Museum and Art Gallery facts for kids
Museum & Art Swindon formerly Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is a museum in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, which is currently closed, but will be reopening in Spring 2024.
Collections
The Swindon Art Gallery collection was established in 1944 by a local benefactor, H. J. P. Bomford, through a significant donation of artworks. Swindon Museum and Art Gallery's collection focuses on major artists and movements of 20th and 21st century British art, with several works presented by the Art Fund and the Contemporary Art Society. Artists in the collection include Simon Carter, Amanda Ansell, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, L S Lowry, Paul Nash, Steven Pippin, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Howard Hodgkin, John Hoyland, Richard Hamilton, Gwen John, Augustus John, Maggi Hambling, John Bellany, Tony Bevan, Ivon Hitchens, John Piper, Christopher le Brun, Dennis Creffield, Lisa Milroy, Julie Umerle, David Leach, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Gillian Ayres, Linda Ingham, Robert Priseman, Sheila Fell, Eileen Cooper, Grayson Perry and William Turnbull. The media include paintings, photography and studio pottery.
The museum had on display local archaeology, geology, and history. Displays presented Swindon's geological Jurassic history, its association with the Roman Empire, and the town's social history.
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery was one of the venues for the annual Swindon Festival of Literature.
Status
The museum was obliged to close in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has not yet reopened.
Until June 2021 it was housed in Apsley House, a 19th-century former house on the corner of Bath Road and Victoria Road in Swindon's Old Town, but had to leave when Swindon Borough Council decided the building was no longer suitable and required major repairs. The collection is intact and largely in storage, and the council have stated their commitment to the long term future of the institution.
