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 these ...

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 or ...

, 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 b ...

, owned by

Bury Council Bury Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of E ...

. 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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

paper manufacturer

Thomas Wrigley Thomas Wrigley (27 June 1808 – 26 January 1880) was a British paper manufacturer, cotton mill owner, art collector and philanthropist from Bury, Lancashire. He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1872. Born on 27 June 1808 close to his fat ...

(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 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 turbulen ...

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

, Edwin Landseer, 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 William S ...

. Donations of other artworks quickly followed the Museum's opening, including donations from the town's Member of Parliament

James Kenyon James Kenyon may refer to: *James Kenyon (cinematographer) James Kenyon (26 May 1850 – 6 February 1925) was a businessman and pioneer of cinematography in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The son of Thomas and Margaret Kenyon, little is k ...

(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. There are twentieth-century paintings by artists such as Victor Pasmore and Edward 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 Lowry may refer to: People * Calvin Lowry (born 1983), American football player * Dave Lowry (born 1965), Canadian ice hockey player * Desiree Lowry (born 1972), Puerto Rican beauty pageant titleholder * Hiram Harrison Lowry (1843–1924), Amer ...

'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 function ...

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

References

External links