Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre, formerly known as Bury Museum and Art Gallery, is a public

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual o ...

, and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

in the town of

Bury, Greater Manchester Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015. The town is within the historic county boundarie ...

, northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, owned by Bury Council. Built in 1901, the Museum's buildings were restored and reopened in 2005.

History

Bury Art Museum's collection was established, in commemoration of

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

in 1897, with the gift of more than 200 oil paintings, watercolours, prints and ceramics accumulated by the Victorian paper manufacturer Thomas Wrigley (1808–1880), on the condition that suitable premises should be built to house the collection. The present building was designed by the Manchester firm of Woodhouse and Willoughby, and was opened by

Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908) styled as Hon. Frederick Stanley from 1844 to 1886 and as The Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886 and 1893, was a Conservative Party politician in the United K ...

on 9 October 1901. The town's Museum opened in the basement of the Art Gallery in 1907.

Collections

The museum's Wrigley Collection is an assemblage of more than two hundred oil paintings, watercolours, prints and ceramics, which includes works by

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbul ...

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, th ...

Edwin Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

, and

George Clausen Sir George Clausen (18 April 1852 – 22 November 1944) was a British artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, dry point and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927. Biography George Clausen was born at 8 Willia ...

. Donations of other artworks quickly followed the Museum's opening, including donations from the town's Member of Parliament James Kenyon (1846–1924) and many others. Other paintings include works by Henry Dawson,

John Bagnold Burgess John Bagnold Burgess (London 21 October 1829 – 2 November 1897 London) was an English artist known for his paintings of historical and genre scenes, principally in Spain.Dictionary of National Biography, 1901, pp. 333–5. Life and work ...

, and

Joseph Noel Paton Sir Joseph Noel Paton (13 December 1821 – 26 December 1901) was a Scottish artist, illustrator and sculptor. He was also a poet and had an interest in, and knowledge of, Scottish folklore and Celtic legends. Early life He was born in Woo ...

. There are twentieth-century paintings by artists such as

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

and

Edward Burra Edward John Burra CBE (29 March 1905 – 22 October 1976) was an English painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, black culture and the Harlem scene of the 1930s. Biography Early life Burra ...

, and the Museum also holds more recent twenty-first-century art works.

Restoration

In 2005, a £1.2 million refurbishment was carried out, designed to provide a brand new museum, art gallery and library all under one roof. This includes a combined Museum and Archives Centre which, based on a radical re-think, uses artefacts, documentation and art to tell the story of the town. The council decided, in 2006, to sell Lowry's painting ''The Riverbank'' at auction in order to fund part of its social services budget shortfall which resulted in the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its functio ...

(MLA) removing its accredited museum status. Bury Museum and Art Gallery was renamed as Bury Art Museum in 2011. The most recent renovation includes modern artefacts such as iPods and electric iRobot vacuum cleaners.

Gallery

File:Bury Art Gallery (14450343879).jpg, Detail from the Frieze, Bury Art Museum File:Bury Art Gallery (14627607803).jpg, Frieze, Bury Art Museum File:Bury Art Museum staircase 2016.jpg, Staircase, Bury Art Museum File:Albert Joseph Moore - Elijah's Sacrifice 1863.jpg,

Albert Joseph Moore Albert Joseph Moore (4 September 184125 September 1893) was an English painter, known for his depictions of languorous female figures set against the luxury and decadence of the classical world. Life Moore was born at York on 4 September 1841 ...

, ''Elijah's Sacrifice'' (1863) File:John Bagnold Burgess - A Modern Saint Francis.jpg,

, ''A Modern Saint Francis'' File:Henry Dawson - An English Lake.jpg, Henry Dawson, ''An English Lake'' File:Joseph Noel Paton - Dante Meditating.jpg,

, ''Dante Meditating'' File:Bury Art Museum - geograph.org.uk - 3059668.jpg, Exeterior, Bury Art Museum

References

External links

Bury Art Museum and Sculpture CentreBury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre
at Bury Council website
Bury Art Museum
at Visitbury.com {{Buildings and structures in Bury Grade II listed buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury Museums in Greater Manchester Art museums and galleries in Greater Manchester Local museums in Greater Manchester Tourist attractions in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury Museums established in 1901 1901 establishments in England

History

Collections

Restoration

Gallery

See also

References

External links