The Save Our Museum and Art Gallery (SOMAG) campaign group has welcomed the appointment of Councillor Matty Courtliff as Swindon Borough Council’s new Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage, Leisure and Town Centre Experience.
A spokesperson for SOMAG said the group hopes this might be the start of more proactive and positive engagement over the future of the town’s museum and art collections.
The public campaign, which began in 2021, successfully forced Swindon Borough Council to abandon its plan to leave the collections in storage until a promised new Cultural Quarter is delivered in the town centre.
The museum and art gallery had been housed in Apsley House on Bath Road for around 90 years, but following the end of the pandemic restrictions Swindon Borough Council announced that Apsley House would not reopen and collections would simply be put in storage.
The council then proposed to use two small rooms at Lydiard House to display a small selection of the collections, before deciding to convert part of the Civic Offices into gallery spaces.
SOMAG supports the ambition to create a temporary home for the collections at the Civic Offices, particularly as the Cultural Quarter is unlikely to be completed for many years, if not decades.
However, the group – which has several members with professional experience and qualifications in museums, buildings and heritage – has repeatedly asked the council how the current proposal can deliver professional quality museum and art gallery displays once the building shell is converted.
In March 2019, the council estimated it would cost £1,864,000 to convert the first floor of the Civic Offices to provide appropriate gallery space for displaying the collections. However, its most recent estimate is that the conversion will cost £400,000.
Despite repeated requests to Swindon Borough Council for an explanation of how the cost of conversion can have fallen by £1,464,000 in three years, SOMAG has not had an answer.
“We are very pleased that following our lobbying Swindon Borough Council agreed to find an alternative venue for Swindon’s own Museum and Art Gallery, rather than wait many, many years for the Cultural Quarter,” said the spokesperson.
“However, it has been frustrating for us and for all the adults and children who loved the displays at Apsley House – including the famous ‘Croc’ or gharial – that the plans for the Civic Offices are so vague.
“We urgently ask for realistic timelines and budgets to be allocated to the interpretation and display of the art and museum collections, which are still absent.
“We are also concerned that papers relating to the SBC planning application to convert the building reveal that the new facility will only be open during office hours, and will be closed at weekends. This seems very odd, as weekends are the days when families would normally plan to visit.
“We are hoping that the appointment of Cllr Courtliff will mark a change in approach, and that Swindon Borough Council will now proactively involve and engage the community in the development of the plans for the museum and art gallery collections.”
