The SOMAG campaign group welcomes the appointment of councillor Matty Courtliff to the Cabinet. Matty is SBC’s new Cabinet member for culture, heritage, leisure and town centre experience.
A spokesperson for SOMAG said: ‘the group hopes this appointment will mark the start of proactive and positive engagement over the future of the town’s museum and art collections.
Residents campaigning for a realistic new home for Swindon’s Museum and Art Gallery gathered together today. The occasion? To mark the two-year anniversary of the closure of the previous facility at Apsley House in Bath Road
A Swindon MAG Friends Update -edited highlights from the most recent newsletter from the Friends.
Members of Save our Museum and Art Gallery (SoMAG) feel bewildered by the paper going to Cabinet on 1 December. And they’re not on their own in that!
The group formed to secure the re-opening of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is urging Swindon Borough Council to be first in the queue for the Chancellor’s budget promise of £850m for museums.
A SoMAG response to a question
NB: I’ve edited the following only for the purposes of SEO &YOAST
Dr Barbara Swan sits on the committee of the Friends of the Museum and Art Gallery. At SBC’s cabinet meeting on 13th Oct 2021 she asked this question of the Leader: ( a title I can’t hear without thinking of Daleks …)
Can the council explain the financial logic of selling off a substantial piece of property in a prime location [Apsley House], at a time when interest rates on cash deposits are very low, to part- fund a project that has no starting date as yet?
Given that property is the one asset that historically increases substantially in value, what’s the financial argument for selling the building now? Surely it makes far better sense to make the necessary repairs (which we understand you’re making in order to make it saleable) and hang on to it so the council can get maximum benefit from its future appreciation in value?
Having written a short piece on my memories of The Oasis, it feels timely to think back on another important, but threatened piece of Swindon heritage, the Bath Road Museum.
Museum and Art Gallery Latest
This post is by way of giving a round-up of recent occurrences in the Swindon museum and art gallery situation.
Museum and art gallery summary
In recent weeks the Swindon Advertiser have published several articles apropos the museum and art gallery. So what follows is a summary of those articles from the start of August to date.
SBC has confirmed that they are reconsidering the museum and art gallery’s current home, Apsley House on Bath Road as an option to house the art and museum collections until they find a suitable alternative venue.
This is the story of Swindon’s famous crocodile. The one that lives on the top floor of Apsley House, home to Swindon’s museum and art gallery. Well – sort of. More on that later.
As if all the bru ha ha surrounding the Oasis leisure centre were not enough and in a week when SBC announce their intention of launching a city status bid, they also announce closure of the museum and art gallery in Swindon’s Old Town.
Quite how one might a city in possession of an art collection of national importance yet nowhere to see it is a mystery to me. But then so much of what SBC does is a mystery to me. This is the unfunniest of jokes.
