Local Issues

Museums and the Arts

Celebrating the Renaissance	Visiting the Russell-Cotes Museum

As a keen art lover and fan of local museums, I was delighted to pay a recent visit to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum to open the new Wish You Were Here Exhibition.  The exhibition is a celebration of life at the seaside and brings together works of art, wonderful bathing costumes and memorabilia.  It also features the evocative cartoons of renowned local artist Eustace Nash.  Local people have lent their own souvenirs and memories which range from photographs of donkeys and a chunk of the shell garden in Southbourne to a gentleman's bathing costume from the last century.

Central to the exhibition is the 'Life at the Seaside' memory wall where groups of older residents have provided their memories and where visitors are also able to participate.  The exhibition is a community celebration of what makes Bournemouth the town it is, with its wonderful beaches that continue to attract visitors much as they have since its days as an exclusive health spa in the 1850s.

I have also been pleased to celebrate the achievements of Renaissance, a programme managed by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council.

Renaissance promotes and supports improving services for museums - in local authorities, the universities and the independent sector - and works with community groups, developing new displays and exhibitions, training staff and volunteers.

It has resulted in significant numbers of new visitors to our museums, in new education programmes for thousands of schoolchildren and their teachers in nuseums and in new opportunities for training, research and sharing expertise, together with new investment in displays and presentation.