Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) is a

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 ...

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 ...

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, the largest in the city. It holds significant and diverse collections in areas such as

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

, local and overseas

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

, and geology. Altogether the museum holds over one million objects, of which a small percentage is on permanent public display. It is a 'Major Partner Museum' (MPM) under the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

administered programme of strategic investment, which means RAMM receives funding (2012–15) to develop its services. RAMM receives this funding in partnership with

Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery The Box is a museum, gallery and archive in Plymouth, Devon, England, opened in 2020 housing a collection of about 2 million items. The core of the building was previously Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery which closed in 2016. The building wa ...

. Previously they were described as 'hub museums' under the 'Renaissance' Programme for regional museums which operated between 2002–11 and funded by the now defunct Museums Libraries & Archives Council (MLA). Founded in 1868, the museum is housed in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building of local

New Red Sandstone The New Red Sandstone, chiefly in British geology, is composed of beds of red sandstone and associated rocks laid down throughout the Permian (300 million years ago) to the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years ago), that under ...

that has undergone several extensions during its history; most recently, the museum was re-opened on 15 December 2011 after a redevelopment lasting four years and costing £24M. Since its re-opening the museum has received several awards.

History

Establishment and early period

The site for the museum was donated by Richard Sommers Gard, MP for Exeter from 1857 to 1864, and a competition for its design attracted twenty-four entries, including one from John Hayward, whose gothic design was the winner. His original plan called for a tall central tower like that at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, but that feature was rejected and was replaced by a gable and rose window. Initially proposed by Sir

Stafford Northcote Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt from 1851 to 1885, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1 ...

as a practical memorial to Prince Albert, an appeal fund was launched in 1861.

John Gendall John Gendall (c. 1790 – 1 March 1865) was a British painter known particularly for his landscapes of Devon. Gendall was involved in the early use of lithography in London. He was born and died in Exeter, where he assisted with the creation ...

volunteered to curate an initial collection required to fill the planned building. and the first phases of the building were completed by 1868. RAMM was the birthplace for much of Exeter's cultural life - the university, central library and college of art all had their origins in what became knowns as RAMM: The 'Devon and Exeter Albert Memorial', as it was originally known, provided an integrated museum, art gallery, free library, reading room, school of art and school of engineering in the manner long advocated by Prince Albert. Its contents soon outgrew the building, necessitating the construction of extensions in 1894 (by Medley Fulford) and in 1898 (by Tait and Harvey). This second extension, the York Wing, was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, and at the same time the title of 'Royal' was granted and so from that date the name Royal Albert Memorial Museum was used. Over the course of time locals adopted the abbreviation 'RAMM', and this in turn became the name by which the museum is branded. For many years the museum changed little after that construction period, although the city library moved out of RAMM in 1930, the school of science ultimately developed into the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

and the school of art became what is now the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

's Faculty of Art & Education, formerly

Exeter College of Art and Design Exeter College of Art and Design was an art college based in Exeter, Devon. Founded in 1854, it amalgamated with what would become Plymouth University in 1989. The main building was located at Earl Richards Road North Exeter from the 1970s w ...

. Over time RAMM gradually expanded to fill the whole building.

RAMM today

Between 2007–11 a major redevelopment was completed costing £24 million. Designed by architects Allies and Morrison, it included repair to the fabric of the building, refurbishment, a complete redisplay of the collections, an extension and a new entrance from the historic Registered gardens at the rear. The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed nearly £10 million of the cost. In addition a purpose-built off-site collections store called the Ark was built and fitted out. The museum reopened on 15 December 2011. The museum is open 10am to 5pm every day except Mondays and bank holidays. Entry is free.

Collections

Four major collection areas are represented: antiquities, art, natural history and world cultures. The world cultures collections are designated as being of national and international significance by the UK government. Sladen Collection RAAM

The museum's

collection includes specimens of

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...

s and

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

s from across the world.

Percy Sladen Walter Percy Sladen (30 June 1849 – 11 June 1900) was an English biologist who specialised in starfish. The son of a wealthy leather merchant, Sladen was born near Halifax, Yorkshire on 30 June 1849. He was educated at Hipperholme Grammar Scho ...

's collection of

echinoderms An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the ...

is held by the museum and considered the most important of its kind outside of any national collection. The costume and textiles collection of the museum is considerable; according to the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achi ...

, they "must rank as one of the most important collections outside London". Due to the delicate nature of these materials, the collection is not on permanent display. RAMM's art collection comprises over 7,000 objects including paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, representing important British artists and emphasising RAMM's location in the South West. Significant artists represented in the collection include Gainsborough, Reynolds, Pompeo Batoni, Richard Wilson and Joseph Wright of Derby; Walter Sickert, Barbara Hepworth, John Nash, Edward Burra, David Bomberg and Patrick Heron. The donors who contributed to the collection include Kent Kingdon (an upholsterer and interior designer), Sir

Harry Veitch Sir Harry James Veitch (24 June 1840 – 6 July 1924) was an eminent English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establ ...

(owner of the horticultural firm Veitch and Sons) and John Lane (founder of the publishing firm

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

)

Awards and recognition

RAMM was named the United Kingdom's "Museum of the Year" by The Art Fund charity in 2012, citing its "ambition and imagination". Since reopening, RAMM has won over a dozen other awards, including three regional RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) awards (2013); the Collections Trust award recognising the curatorial and collections management good practice of RAMM (2013); and the American Event Design Award for Best Museum Environment (2012).

Veitch Memorial Lecture

At the end of every July, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum holds a plant-orientated lecture in memory of Sir

Funding

RAMM is owned and partly funded by Exeter City Council, with additional funding from Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisation programme of investment in the arts. Significant development funding was received from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2007–11.

References

External links

Official websiteVirtual tour of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{authority control Museums in Exeter Art museums and galleries in Devon Natural history museums in England Gothic Revival architecture in Devon Monuments and memorials to Albert, Prince Consort Monuments and memorials in Devon Musical instrument museums Museums established in 1868 1868 establishments in England University of Exeter