Museum upgrade is needed for exhibitions

Museum upgrade is needed for exhibitions

20 September 2017

TWO galleries at Down County Museum will have to be upgraded if ambitious plans to host major exhibitions in 2019 and 2020 are to be successful.

The Downpatrick museum is involved in a partnership with the British Museum and is keen to borrow items from it to form the centrepiece of two major temporary displays on St Patrick and Sir Hans Sloane.

As a partner of the British Museum, exciting opportunities for borrowing important artefacts from it are currently being explored, and the local museum has already been successful in securing £9,500 from the British Museum Trust to purchase special display cases to facilitate the proposed exhibitions.

The first exhibition will focus on the ‘World of St Patrick’ in the fifth century, drawing together artefacts relating to Ireland and the people’s of Europe at the fall of the Roman Empire. It is hoped it will be in place in 2019.

The following year, museum officials are keen to host an exhibition relating to the life and collections of Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum who was born in Killyleagh in 1660.

During his lifetime, he amassed a huge collection of artefacts from across the globe and with 2020 marking the 350th anniversary of his birth, the Downpatrick museum is keen to dedicate an exhibition to him.

Members of Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s Enterprise, Regeneration and Tourism Committee were told recently that the proposed exhibitions will be accompanied by major EU Peace IV funded educational and community relations work with local community groups and schools.

But before anything happens, the British Museum must be satisfied the Downpatrick museum’s galleries have the right environmental conditions to prevent damage or any deterioration of the artefacts.

Given how precious the material is, Newry, Mourne and Down Council has to ensure it can provide a stable temperature in the main temporary exhibition gallery and eliminate natural light and risk of water damage.

Council officials have confirmed “significant improvements” are required to the main gallery and an adjoining one in order to meet the British Museum’s loan requirements.

The galleries in question were constructed as part of an extension to the cell block at the old gaol in 1991 and were not part of the capital project in 2014/15 to extend the English Street complex.

Council officials say the galleries are “deficient in a number of respects” due to design faults and structural problems which need to be resolved in order to make them fit-for-purpose for the important loan exhibitions.

Local authority staff insist the improvements will make the loan requests “more acceptable” and help facilitate major exhibitions which will draw large numbers to the Downpatrick museum. The complex currently attracts 46,000 visitors annually, and council officials say there is the potential to increase this to 50,000 with good programming and activity.

Work is due to start shortly to determine the full extent and cost of the required improvements to the museum galleries with the figures scheduled to be tabled at a future meeting of the local authority committee when approval will be sought to budget for the work in the 2018/19 capital programme.