Tender launched for museum masterplan to make the most of high-profile partnership

A tender has been launched for consultants to come up with a 'master plan' for Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery (SM&AG) as it looks to make the most of its high-profile partnership agreement with one of the world's most important museums.

The project, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the museum opening, has been made possible thanks to the Shropshire Council-owned venue being just one of nine British Museum Partnership Galleries in the UK.

The Shrewsbury museum is the UK’s first pre-Roman British Museum Partnership Gallery, and an award from Arts Council England’s National Portfolio fund is allowing it to develop a masterplan to "develop and enhance" displays and the interpretation of exhibits.

Robert Macey, Shropshire Council Cabinet member for culture and digital, said: “By being a Partnership Gallery we are able to focus on the national and international significance of Bronze Age Shropshire.

“It has already allowed us to show the fabulous Bronze Age sun pendant through the Spotlight Loan programme, but the Partnership Gallery, which we hope to open next year, will help us make the best use of the space available and enhance visitors’ experience.”

Fay Bailey, Shropshire Council’s museums and archives manager, added: “As well as redeveloping our own Bronze Age displays to present a dedicated and dynamic narrative of local life from the Ice Age to the Romans we will be able to utilise long-term loans from the British Museum, and redistribute gallery space in the museum’s stunning Victorian Music Hall setting.

“Our next steps are to employ consultants to re-imagine the gallery space and we hope to have the masterplan in place by the end of the year. It’s an exciting time for SM&AG and an opportunity for us to maximise both our gallery space and our extensive collections.”

The council said redevelopment will allow the display of more of Shrewsbury Museum’s nationally significant geology and archaeology collections, much of which is currently in storage.

The collection comprises more than 1,000 prehistoric objects and important finds.

Shropshire is nationally and internationally recognised as a significant historic landscape, highlighting its growing research potential and showing communities from 8,000 years ago in the Shropshire landscape were well connected across Britain, Ireland and western Europe.

Fay added: “We will continue to grow our Deep History collections, especially with a focus on archaeology and ceramics and are actively collecting these items.”