Latest on Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Opening

Swindon Museum and Art Gallery closed on 18 March 2020 because of Covid restrictions, and in July 2021 it was announced that all art and museum collections would be put into storage until the Art Pavilion was built in the Cultural Quarter with access to Collections through Art on Tour and Museums without Walls. The Friends objected to this as can be seen by reading blog posts from June 2021; it meant waiting at least 10 years before we would have a museum and art gallery in Swindon. Following an outcry from the Friends about the lack of physical space for a museum and art gallery in Swindon, a proposal was made to convert the first floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid St into Swindon MAG, and now it seems that four years on from the initial closure, it may open this spring on the first floor of the Civic Offices.

There have been various collages of photos on social media and on the council's website of work continuing at the Civic Offices.

The Art Deco fireplace will be kept

Photo of ceiling above. Below a Facebook post from Councillor Strinkovsky, Cabinet member for Heritage, Art and Culture who has got the work underway posted just before Christmas.

I like to include Advertiser articles as well, there have been two on the opening date. The most recent published on 28 December is sounding very positive: 

Museum opening soon 

This article published a month earlier is less accurate, it has Apsley House reclassified as a Regency building rather than a Georgian one and the Civic Offices as built in the 1920s rather than the 1930s. It is also suggested the Friends and some Labour councillors were opposed using the Civic Offices which wasn't the case: Museum open in spring 

We eagerly await the opening of Swindon MAG, it will be wonderful to have this facility back again with added advantages of accessibility and 40% more exhibition space than before.