The Swindon Art Collection comprises one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary art in the UK. It’s housed in Museum and Art Swindon – the erstwhile museum and art gallery housed in Apsley House in Old Town – now in the civic offices in Euclid Street

Swindon is known for many things

Swindon, as we know, is known for many things. The GWR, Garrards, a gharial, Triumph lingerie, Bluebird toys, XTC and a magical roundabout. To name but a few. And some of those things are VERY well known.
But what’s not so well-known, beyond the art world that is, is the astonishing collection of modern British art that resides here in our town. In summary, this collection comprises somewhere in the region of 800 paintings, sculptures, ceramics and multi-media pieces. 

Together they form one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary art in the UK.

Now you’ve digested that nugget, upon your lips it wouldn’t surprise me, sit questions of how did ‘clone town, crap town, handy town whenever a London journalist, short on originality, wants somewhere to be rude about,* (John Chandler: Swindon Decoded) come to possess such jewels?

Well – gather round and, in the manner of Listen with Mother (yes I am that old), sit comfortably and I’ll begin.

Back in the 1920s there existed in Swindon a small gallery in an ex-Roman Catholic church. And it had contained a few pieces of local art. Then came the Bomford Gift.

The Bomford Gift

Then, in 1944, local resident HJP (Jimmy) Bomford (1896-1979) donated a collection of artworks to the town – not the council. Thus, Bomford created the Swindon collection of modern British art. A collection that represents artists with national and international reputations while the Swindon museum art collection in the main presents paintings of the locality. 

Bomford though wasn’t Swindon’s only art benefactor. Charles Phelps, a Swindonian left, on his 1949 death, a substantial sum of money to Swindon to carry on building its collection. Both he and Bomford felt that some of the art, owned by them, that related to Swindon, should be available to Swindonians.

Swindon’s collection then comprises a selection of British artists from the modern period including Gwen John, Augustus John, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Ivon Hitchens. More recent artists’ work includes pieces by Terry Frost, Howard Hodgkin and Lisa Milroy. You’ll find too LS Lowry’s 1943 Winter in Pendlebury, a rare Lowry portrayal of a snowy scene, and Lucien Freud’s Girl with a Fig Leaf. 

Local artists are represented too. In recent years the collection has taken in works by David Bent and Ken White. 

A cultural beacon

You’ve gathered by now then, I hope, that we’re talking about a … serious art collection. Which leads me to mention that the Chair of the Friends of MAS, Andrew Cross, attended the launch of the Vision for the Heart of Swindon at the House of Lords on 17 March at an event hosted by Lord Wills on behalf of the Swindon Borough Council.

The Vision document* sets out eight ambitions, including a creative centre. Prominent in this ambition is the and celebration of Swindon’s 20th century British art collection. It was heart-warming and encouraging to see how widely recognised and supported, the Swindon Collection is, by Swindon – and beyond. 

*Download the vision document from the SBC website here: https://www.swindon.gov.uk/downloads/file/11236/vision_for_the_heart_of_swindon

The expectation is that the collection will serve as a cultural beacon and enhance the cultural development, an approach that has proven successful in other towns in the UK.  

I mean, that sounds wonderful doesn’t it? A cultural beacon. How simply marvellous. Beacons though, by and large, are easy to spot are they not? Sadly, the same cannot be said of Museum and Art Swindon.

A sign of the times

As marvellous as Museum and Art Swindon is and as thrilled to bits as I am that we have it, it’s high time that we stopped with the Brigadoon-shrouding-the-thing-in-mist-thing and sorted out the signage. Or lack thereof which is more to the point.

It’s nigh on a year now since MAS reopened in the civic offices and the signage situation is simply sub-optimal. The dratted Scarlet Pimpernel would be easier to locate.

There’s a bit of a signage outside the civic offices – where MAS is housed. But you can’t really see until you’re on top of it. Then there’s these things. Okay as far as they go – but that’s not far enough.

Nothing on Euclid Street

There isn’t even a sign on the top of Euclid Street that people either getting off the bus at Regent Circus or walking up from the railway station would come across.

And speaking of the station, surely, surely, surely, we should have one (at least) of these exhorting people to visit Museum and Art Swindon? With a picture of the civic offices, the MAS branding, the address etc, etc, etc?

So here we are, with a lovely museum and art centre in our beautiful Art Deco civic offices. And here we are also in possession of a modern British art collection of inarguable quality and national interest. The only problem being that nay b&gger can find it.

When Labour took over the council they made a huge effort to bring the museum artefacts and the Swindon collection back to the people, after the failure of the Tories to reopen Apsley House post Covid, by creating Museum and Art Swindon in the civic offices. Yay, yay and thrice yay for that!!

But if people outside Swindon, who want to see our art, are struggling to find it – and anecdotally they are – then we’re looking at a massive exercise in futility.

So, out of interest, do people out there know where the civic offices are? I’ve been asked, on social media, where the building is – by people in Swindon. So if they don’t know, what chance do external visitors have as things are? Nil and slim I venture to suggest. But if you’ve struggled to find the place – let me know.

And if you do know where the civic offices are, do you know that they contain Museum and Art Swindon?

See also – *

The ugliest town in England? Really?