Happy birthday to a St Albans favourite: how St Albans Museum + Gallery has brought stunning exhibitions to locals
As it has for the past five years, St Albans Museum + Gallery opened its doors to the community on 8 June, only this time visitors were welcomed by festive decorations and a free birthday cupcake (for the first 100 guests). At what has proven to be one of St Albans’ most popular cultural spots, with a host of tantalising exhibitions, engaging events and immersive activities, St Albans Museum + Gallery reached a new milestone: its fifth birthday.
Since the Museum + Gallery opened in June 2018 after a £7.75million restoration project, nearly one million visitors have enjoyed exhibitions, events, activities, and the popular Courtroom Café. And the national and East of England regional Annual Museum Survey 2022 reported that the total economic impact of visitors to the local St Albans economy was nearly £2m.
Set over three floors, the state-of-the-art gallery spaces showcase over 2,000 years of priceless heritage and display contemporary artworks – sharing local, national and world treasures with all.
More than 50 exhibitions have been offered – many thanks to fundamental partnerships – and the community has attended a diverse host of events. St Albans Museum + Gallery also offers great learning programmes that engage approximately 1,000 school children each year.
Farhana Begum – arts, tourism, culture and heritage manager at St Albans Museums – says: “We are delighted to be celebrating this important milestone at St Albans Museum + Gallery. The venue has hosted an incredible range of exhibitions and events since it opened its doors five years ago and these have been enjoyed by an increasing number of visitors, which is wonderful to see.
“It is fascinating to look back, but even more exciting to think of the upcoming projects in the works. We are looking forward to the next five years of St Albans Museum + Gallery which promise to be even more terrific.”
In 2019, St Albans Museum + Gallery displayed the breathtaking sculptures and archival works of Barbara Hepworth (Barbara Hepworth: Artist in Society 1948-53) in partnership with UH Arts + Culture. The exhibition presented many of the artist’s dynamic pieces and unearthed her connection with Hertfordshire; Hepworth’s work became linked to the county following various commissions. An equally popular partnership with UH Arts + Culture, St Albans Museum + Gallery recently presented a captivating collection of Henry Moore’s (Henry Moore: Drawing in the Dark), which was the largest exhibition of the artist’s coal mining drawings.
Contributing to St Albans Museum + Gallery’s lasting legacy, other community exhibitions have included SquatLife, which explored homelessness in St Albans, Arriving and Belonging, which discussed the stories of the city’s Jewish community, and a range of delightful in-house exhibitions such as The Chroniclers of History, The Pickling Project, and the current Time for Tea.
St Albans Museum + Gallery is open daily 11am–5pm, and is free Entry. Visit stalbansmuseums.org.uk and see more @stalbansmuseums
