Worthing Museum and Art Gallery facts for kids
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| Established | 1908 |
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| Location | Chapel Road, Worthing, West Sussex, England |
| Public transit access | Worthing railway station |
| Area | 588,000 sq ft (54,600 m2) in 94 Galleries |
The Worthing Museum and Art Gallery is a cool place in the middle of Worthing, a town in West Sussex, England. It's close to the old St Paul's Church. This museum opened way back in 1908, and it was first built to be both a library and a museum. A famous person named Andrew Carnegie helped pay for the library part. It's actually the biggest museum in all of West Sussex!
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Amazing Collections to Explore
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery has some really special collections. It's known for having one of the biggest collections of costumes and textiles (like fabrics and clothes) in the whole United Kingdom!
Fashion Through the Ages
The museum has special areas that show clothes from the 1800s and 1900s. You can see how women's fashion changed a lot during the 1800s. The 1900s gallery focuses on women's styles, even showing pictures of people from Worthing wearing these clothes long ago. There's also a smaller display of men's clothing.
Discovering Ancient History
The museum keeps records of all the amazing archaeological finds (things dug up from the past) found between the River Adur and the River Arun. This includes:
- The John Pull Collection: This has tools and items from Neolithic flint mines. These mines were even featured on the TV show Time Team!
- The Patching hoard: A collection of old gold coins.
- An Anglo-Saxon long boat: A boat from a very long time ago.
- The Highdown Goblet: This is a special glass vase from Ancient Egyptian times with Ancient Greek writing on it. It was found at an Anglo-Saxon burial ground called Highdown.
Toys and Childhood Memories
The museum has over 900 dolls! It also has a fun collection of toys from the Georgian era (a long time ago) all the way up to today. This is part of their "Juvenilia" collection. Plus, there's the Colin Mears Collection, which has 2000 objects that tell the story of what childhood was like in the 1900s. The museum also collects items about local history, old coins (called numismatics), and beautiful fine and decorative art pieces.
Wonderful Art Collection
When the museum first started collecting art, they mostly looked for works by artists who had strong connections to Sussex. But they also collected pieces by famous artists from other places, like Nicholas Roerich and Hobbema.
Famous Paintings and Sculptures
The art collection grew to include important British paintings. One famous painting you can see is Bianca (1869) by William Holman Hunt. There are also works by Lucien Pissarro and Ivon Hitchens.
The museum also has sculptures by talented artists like John Skelton, Philip Jackson, Dora Gordine, and Anthony Stevens. These artists are well-known across the country and also have links to the local area. In 2008, the museum got Skelton's sculpture called The Diver (1970), which is carved from walnut wood.
Visiting Art Exhibitions
The Art Gallery often hosts special exhibitions that change over time. For example, they had an exhibition by Jon Edgar in 2010 and another by Dora Gordine in 2011.
