Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum,

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 ...

, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well,

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

, England.

Overview

The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herbert, a Coventry industrialist and philanthropist whose gifts enabled the original building to be opened in 1960. Building began in 1939, with an interruption by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and the Herbert opened in 1960. In 2008, it reopened after a £14 million refurbishment. The Herbert is run by Culture Coventry, a registered charity, and admission is free. It derives financial support from donations, sales at the museum shop, and hiring the buildings out. In 2010, the museum and gallery received more than 300,000 visitors, making it one of the most popular free tourist attractions in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

History

Benedictine Museum and foundation: Pre-war

Museums in Coventry before the Herbert included the museum of the Coventry City Guild and the Benedictine Museum, opened by J. B. Shelton in the 1930s. However,

Coventry City Council Coventry City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Coventry in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors. Coventry ...

's collection of art treasures and museum pieces were housed in various buildings, and so the council acquired a half-acre site over a number of years costing £35,375. In 1938 the philanthropist Sir Alfred Herbert donated £100,000 to the corporation to erect a gallery and museum on the site.''Sir A. Herbert's Gift To Coventry'', ''The Times'', 26 October 1938 Plans were drawn up by the Leicester architect Albert Herbert, a cousin of Sir Alfred, and building began the following year. The city's destruction during the

Coventry Blitz The Coventry Blitz ( blitz: from the German word ''Blitzkrieg'' meaning "lightning war" ) or Coventration of the city was a series of bombing raids that took place on the British city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Sec ...

meant construction was suspended, with only the basement completed. City architect Donald Gibson's radical rebuilding plan for Coventry city centre became war time propaganda for the post-war reconstruction of Britain. But, post-war economies required Gibson to concentrate on a building programme for the suburbs. Completion of the first building under his plan was delayed until 1953.Andrew Saint, ‘Gibson, Sir Donald Edward Evelyn (1908–1991)’,

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004 New plans for the museum were drawn up in 1952 by the Leicester architects, Albert Herbert & Son, and in May 1954 the

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid by Herbert, who also donated a further £100,000 to the project. Herbert died in May 1957, and the museum and art gallery that bears his name was opened on 9 March 1960 by his third wife Lady Herbert.

Refurbishment: 2005–2008

The first phase of a two-phase refurbishment was completed in 2005 with £3 million of funds from

Advantage West Midlands Advantage West Midlands was established in 1999 as one of nine regional development agencies (RDAs) in England. RDAs were created by the UK Government to drive sustainable economic development and social and physical regeneration through a bus ...

and the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

. During the refurbishment, it was considered that a painting by seventeenth-century artist

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

was too large and fragile to be moved. Instead the canvas, which has been with The Herbert since the 1960s and described as one of the museum's most prized paintings, was boarded up in 2005 and uncovered three years later in time for the opening. In early 2008, the second phase was completed at a cost of £14 million. A new entrance on Bayley Lane was provided, along with a 500 sq metre glass-covered court extension. The extended buildings include a new cafe area, education, training, creative media and arts information facilities, additional gallery spaces for temporary exhibitions, and facilities for conservation work and to preserve the city records and archive.

Culture Coventry

The Herbert is part of Culture Coventry, which also manages three additional local heritage sites: Coventry Transport Museum, the Old Grammar School, and the

Lunt Roman Fort The Lunt Roman Fort is the archaeological site of a Roman fort, of unknown name, in the Roman province of Britannia. It is open to the public and located in the village of Baginton on the south eastern outskirts of Coventry. The fort has now b ...

situated three miles outside Coventry at Baginton. The museum won the Guardian Family Friendly Award 2010. The same year, the gallery was shortlisted for the

Art Fund Prize The Museum of the Year Award, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize and the Art Fund Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence". The award of £ ...

in recognition of its outstanding work in engaging new and diverse audiences.

Collections

Permanent gallery spaces include Sculpture, Old Masters paintings, Art Since 1900, local history and Elements (Natural History). The museum's notable collections include a costume collection dating from around 1800 to date, with the emphasis on nineteenth-century women's wear. The museum is now concentrating on the acquisition of more modern clothes and items from different ethnic communities in Coventry. Another collection represents the city's history as a centre for

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mater ...

making, which includes over 250 sample books, as well as woven Stevengraphs – a form of

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

picture and bookmark, together with dyer's samples, documents, woven badges and related machinery. The

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

granted nearly £200,000 to The Herbert and

Wolverhampton Art Gallery Wolverhampton Art Gallery is located in the City of Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, United Kingdom. The building was funded and constructed by local contractor Philip Horsman (1825–1890), and built on land provided by the municipal aut ...

in 2008 for acquisitions in relation to the theme of peace and reconciliation. In 2011, the museum raised £12,000 to buy The Coventry Album, a collection of paintings by

William Henry Brooke William Henry Brooke (1772–1860) was a British artist and illustrator. Life He was the son of the painter Henry Brooke and a nephew of Henry Brooke, the author of ''A Fool of Quality''. He was a pupil of Samuel Drummond, and worked as a por ...

in 1819. The album is one of the most important collection of historic pictures of Coventry.

Other heritage sites

Culture Coventry also administers three other local heritage sites: *

Coventry Transport Museum Coventry Transport Museum (formerly known as the Museum of British Road Transport) is a transport museum, located in Coventry city centre, England. It houses the largest collection of British-made road transport held in public ownership. It i ...

is a motor museum, located in Coventry City Centre, England. It houses a collection of British-made road transport. It is located in Coventry because the city was previously the centre of the British car industry. There are more than 240 cars and commercial vehicles, 100 motorcycles, 200 bicycles. * The

is located in Baginton, about 3 miles from Coventry city centre, where there is a modern partial reconstruction of the fort that was established there in AD 60. * The

Old Grammar School Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, England on the corner of Bishop Street and Hales Street.

Coventry Archives

Coventry Archives is housed in The Herbert. Made up of what was the Coventry archives and Coventry local history, it houses the largest collection of records related to Coventry and its history. In 2018 Coventry Archives was re-branded from the previous name, Coventry History Centre.

Temporary exhibitions and special projects

In 2005, The Herbert hosted a theatre project for children, showing them what it would have been like to be evacuees in the 1940s. The event won two awards, one for excellence in the field of heritage and the other for engaging children with history. There are four temporary exhibition spaces, and the temporary exhibition programme includes exhibitions from national and international galleries such as

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

, V&A,

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...

and

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

. Self-created exhibitions also explore local themes and social history. In 2009, the Herbert hosted a collection of fifty watercolours from British artists such as J. M. W. Turner and

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

. In 2010, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the museum's opening, the Herbert held several events throughout the year. In March more than 1,000 people attended a special event where ten objects, including a sixteenth-century tapestry and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ring, illustrating the history of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, were put on display. In 2018, the Herbert hosted two major exhibitions
PLAY
was an exhibition created in collaboration with the video game studio, Rare, and featured the history of the company's games. There was also a large section dedicated to the types of play that humans partake in. There was also a fad wall where visitors were encouraged to write their favourite fads. Visitors praised the exhibition for its interactability and emphasis on having fun inside the exhibition space. The second major exhibition in 2018 was the ARTIST ROOMS:

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan hav ...

. One of Germany's most significant post-war artists, Kiefer's work explores themes of national identity and collective memory. In 2020, as part of the Exploring Eliot project celebrating the 200th birthday of author

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

, the Herbert collaborated with

Coventry University , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , undergr ...

to explore Eliot's legacy and create films on her life and work. Students were selected primarily from the Faculty of English and were given an opportunity to work with museum collections, objects, artworks, archives and rare pieces from Eliot's personal life. The project was then adapted into a module and integrated into the English degrees at Coventry University and students in the coming years will be able to avail the opportunity as well.

References

Bibliography

External links

The Herbert website
{{coord, 52.407159, -1.506098, region:GB, display=title Museums established in 1960 1960 establishments in England