Article: David Styles | Image: © Andy Brown/Museums Sheffield
Weston Park Museum has confirmed it will debut two new gallery spaces in the first half of 2020.
The expansion work forms part of an ongoing renovation project which began in 2016, and has been made possible by a £187,000 grant awarded by DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.
The two new galleries set to open next year will add to the exhibition space Museums Sheffield has across the South Yorkshire city, with Weston Park Museum operating alongside Millennium Gallery and Graves Gallery within the organisation.
The first of the new galleries will focus on Ancient Egypt, an area covered in previous exhibitions at the museum. The space will play host to Sheffield’s Egyptology collection, and events have already been scheduled for visitors to give their views on the artefacts they will be most interested in seeing form part of the new space.
The other space will become the Sheffield Stories gallery, an area devoted to exploring the city’s communities and people. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition will focus on Sheffield through the 1950s, 60s and 70s and will be co-curated with the help of local community groups.
“We’re delighted to be creating two new galleries with generous support from DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund and other key funders,” noted Sian Brown, Head of Collections at Museums Sheffield.
“The new galleries will enable us to share even more of the city’s collections, work with the people of Sheffield to tell their remarkable stories and provide an even richer experience for our visitors.”
The work will not exclusively grow Weston Park’s footprint, with its existing Arctic World and Treasures exhibition areas closing later this year as part of the scheme.
Museums Sheffield says the latest string of improvements have only been made possible by the financial support of The Charles Haywood Foundation and The Foyle Foundation, in addition to visitor donations and the aforementioned DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.
