A Preview of Museum and Art Swindon

 The preview afternoon on the first floor of the Civic Offices on 18 March gave those who were fortunate enough to be invited a wonderful glimpse at what the new Museum & Art Swindon in the Civic Offices in Euclid St will look like. The afternoon started in the Council Chamber with speeches from Sarah Troughton, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire and Marina Strinkovsky,  Cabinet Member for Heritage, Art and Culture and was followed by a tour of the first floor of the Civic Offices led by Frances Yeo, Swindon Museums Manager.

I didn't take any photos, but Connor Mountford, Communications Executive in Media Relations for Swindon Borough Council took the following photos and kindly sent them to me. I'll start with this one taken just before we left the Council Chamber:

l to r: Leader of the Council: Cllr Jim Robbins, then Sarah Troughton, Linda Kasmaty (me) and Cllr Marina Strinkovsky

We started looking at the History of Swindon Galleries , it looks very quiet because I think Connor must have gone round before we arrived.

Above I think there are fossils found in Swindon in the cabinets

The Mayoral robes from 1920s, I think

This is the more recent history maybe with examples of art pertaining to Swindon on the far wall

Above we have the Corner Gallery which was showing an exhibition entitled Pieces of Me

Above this is the West Gallery with an example of work done by a group in response to a sumptuous  painting by Yolanda Sonnabend, artist and stage designer, seen below:

Below here's a picture of the shop with some really enticing items in it

There are also some more photos with people in them:

People in what will be the Museum Reception, shop and Origins Gallery, and below in one of the Museum Galleries

Aled Thomas News reporter at the Swindon Advertiser wrote up the event and captured the excitement of the afternoon really well.

This all makes more sense if I add a plan of the first floor, apologies for the shadows of my hands when taking it from a sheet of paper:

I'm sure there are few things to sort out, but it's lovely to see that Museum & Art Swindon are very nearly ready to open and looking so very good. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in getting us to this point.