Coming next month . . .

. . . in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

On 15th. February:

Anita Corbin 100 First Women Portraits is the culmination of her 10-year personal mission to capture the portraits of modern female trailblazers.

Read more.

On 22nd. February:

Researched and curated by residents of Brighton & Hove, Queer the Pier allows the visitor to explore selected experiences of LGBTQ+ people in Sussex over the last 200 years, beginning with a blackmail letter written in 1798 from a solicitor to an army captain, accused of propositioning another man on a coach to Dorking.

Read more.

New Archaeology Gallery

Named for its major benefactor, the 'Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery' opens to the public on 26 Jan.2019.

This is the first new gallery for 20 years to be devoted to the story of our ancestors who lived in Brighton & Hove from the Ice Age to the Saxons. It results from several years of work following a public petition from the Brighton & Hove Archaeology Society of which Elaine is a member.

At the heart of the exhibition will be seven forensically accurate 3D facial reconstructions revealing the faces of people, some of whose remains were found in and around Brighton & Hove from the Ice Age to the Saxon era.

Using modern scientific technology, research into the lives of these people has discovered a wealth of mystery, drama and tragedy through childbirth, malnutrition, toothache and possibly murder. Now you can see what they looked like and learn their real-life stories.

"The Snowman" comes to Brighton.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Snowman, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, together with Penguin Ventures (part of Penguin Random House) are showing an  exhibition of the original book artwork created by Raymond Briggs. Raymond taught illustration at Brighton College of Art and still lives near Brighton.

In 1982 The Snowman was adapted for screen and has been shown on Channel 4 at Christmas every year since, becoming a firm favourite with children and adults all over the world and an intrinsic part of family festive traditions.

Some of the original hand-drawn cels, celluloid sheets used for traditional animation, from the TV adaptation will also be on display.

Since it was first published forty years ago, The Snowman has been produced in 21 languages around the world and has inspired a number of additional stories including a sequel animation, The Snowman and the Snowdog.

To commemorate the anniversary, children’s author Michael Morpurgo has reimagined Raymond Briggs’ original tale as a chapter book. Illustrated by Robin Shaw, The Snowman by Michael Morpurgo will appeal to middle-grade readers. Robin Shaw has also created a short animation especially for the 40th anniversary celebrations that will premiere in the gallery from 4 December.

Families will be able to enjoy a fun-filled Christmas day out by visiting The Snowman show and Christmas at the Royal Pavilion where the Pavilion is decked out in sumptuous festive decorations including a replica of Queen Victoria’s sleigh for the ultimate Christmas family photo.

The exhibition will also be the inspiration of a new artwork by the museum award-winning artist Helen Marshall. Using festive images submitted by the public throughout October and November Helen will create a collage portrait of The Snowman and James which will be unveiled and on display in the gallery from 4 December.  Festive photographs of Christmas memories, snow scenes, or all things wintery can be submitted at  www.thepeoplespicture.com. 

Gilbert & George at Brighton Museum

You don't get many Gilbert & George works to the gallery wall but what the exhibition lacks in number it more than makes up for in the stunning, visual impact of the art.

Playful and ambiguous, the works on show explore themes essential to humanity and contemporary society including sex, faith, and identity. The exhibition comprises works ranging from 1969 to 1991 including 'Existers' created in 1984 and later works such as 'Hunger' and 'Thirst', both created in 1992 and 'Family Tree' 1991. The works use the artists’ own image, their place as misfits in society and their concept of ‘art for all’.

Many of the big, brightly coloured works are from the 1980s, a period of huge energy and change for the artists, when Gilbert & George were also developing new and specifically modern techniques of photography and printing.

"Gilbert & George" for Brighton

Existers 1984

Works by the artist partnership Gilbert & George are to visit Brighton Museum. The display will comprise works ranging from 1969 to 1991 including bold-coloured works such as Existers created in 1984 and later works such as Hunger and Thirst, both created in 1992 and Family Tree 1991. The works explore the artists’ own image, their place as misfits in society and their concept of ‘art for all’.

Many of the big, brightly coloured works are from the 1980s, a period of huge energy and change for the artists, when Gilbert & George were also developing new and specifically modern techniques of photography and printing.

This exhibition draws from ARTIST ROOMS, a touring collection of over 1,600 works of modern and contemporary art by more than 40 major artists. The collection is displayed across the UK through a touring programme, supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund and Creative Scotland. ARTIST ROOMS was established through The d’Offay Donation in 2008, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund and the Scottish and British Governments.

A 'Royal Pavilion Estate' Trust.

A report to the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee this Thursday (25 January) recommends the decisions necessary to establish the city’s long-anticipated trust, bringing together the entire historic Royal Pavilion Estate. Previously the council had proposed a two stage process, creating an interim trust and then merging this with Brighton Dome & Festival. The new proposal recommends moving to a single charity in one stage to enable the benefits of joint working and the generation of additional income to support the service, to be felt sooner.

Under the proposal, the RPM would be led by the existing management team, supported by a new board consisting of the shadow board and the current trustees of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Ltd. This would maintain the focus on providing professional standards of museum management in the service while allowing for innovation in working across the Royal Pavilion Estate and the city’s other museum sites. The trust would also build on the successful Royal Pavilion Estate project which is bringing together the city’s cultural heart by reconnecting the historic Grade 1 and Grade 2 listed buildings and landscape to create a reunified estate.

The new trust, yet to be named, will have a 25- year- contract which will secure the future of the RPM for the long term. Able to take full advantage of charitable giving, tax and rate relief benefits and access a range of fundraising and commercial development opportunities. Other trusts across the country have been very successful in increasing attendances and raising their own income.

Brighton & Hove is a leading tourist destination with the Royal Pavilion, museums, Brighton Dome venues and Brighton Festival among the most popular visitor attractions. More than 11 million people visited the city in 2016, and the Royal Pavilion Estate’s economic impact is around £62 million a year.

Update 29th Jan 2018

Plans to move the Royal Pavilion & Museums to a single new cultural Trust with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival have been  agreed by the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee. The move will take place on 1st July 2018.

Brighton Herald now online

1st. edition. 

Brighton Museum have  recently released over 4000 digitised copies of the Brighton Herald newspaper on their Digital Media Bank for free online browsing or download.

The Herald was the first newspaper dedicated to Brighton, publishing its first issue on 6 September 1806.  The name of the paper changed to the Brighton Herald and Hove Chronicle on 19 July 1902, and to the Brighton and Hove Herald on 4 November 1922. The final edition, after 165 years, was produced on 30 September 1972 when the Herald was absorbed by the Brighton and Hove Gazette. The digitised newspapers released cover the period from 1806 to 1920. There is intermittent coverage for the early years, but a complete run is available from 1832 onwards.

The newspapers are available as PDF files, which were scanned from microfilm copies. As a result, the quality of the text varies, but the text has been scanned with optical character recognition (OCR) software, so it is possible to search for keywords within the newspapers. The Search Tips page on the Digital Media Bank advises how to run searches by date and/or keyword.

Over the next two years the Museum will be releasing more historic Brighton newspapers online, and they will be made freely available to view online or download to computer.

Queer Looks 2018

Royal Pavilion & Museums - a bumper summer

Between April and September the Royal Pavilion received more than 220,000 visits, up by 6% and on target to reach an estimated 325,000 this year.

The Royal Pavilion is a good general barometer of the local tourist economy and this year has seen a notable increase in the proportion of foreign visitors - 43% compared with 37% in 2016/17.

Visits to Brighton Museum also increased by 13,000, despite entry charges for non-residents. Between April and September there were 61,000 visits to the museum – a massive 27% increase on last year.

The increases are partly due to the weak pound attracting overseas visitors and some popular exhibitions, such as Jane Austen By The Sea at the Royal Pavilion  and Constable at Brighton Museum.

Preston Manor visits were 2,600 above target, with 11,768 through the doors of Brighton’s Edwardian mansion between April and September. Two-thirds of visits to Preston Manor are school groups and almost all the autumn sessions are fully booked.

Royal Pavilion & Museums - £2.8M successful bid

The Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM) has successfully bid for nearly £2.8 million over four years (£689,507a year) from Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.

This offer is conditional on an agreed business case for invigorating the Booth, Hove Museum  and Preston Manor and bringing the collections across the city closer to communities, through digital and schools activities to exhibitions, events and outreach.

At the Booth Museum a new ‘evolution gallery’ will feature a specially commissioned replica of an ‘Iguanodon Mantellisaurus’ (a type of dinosaur) and the story of its local discoverer Gideon Mantell. From birds to butterflies, flora to fossils, the Booth’s Designated collection will evolve into an interactive science centre, to share the story of what it is to be human in the natural world.

The Booth will also build on its popular events programme to attract new audiences; it has hosted award-winning life drawing classes, promenade theatre, sell-out pub quizzes, acoustic gigs and taxidermy demonstrations that have shown the venue and collections in a new light.

Hove Museum’s profile will be developed as a ‘museum of making,’ encouraging and inspiring a wide audience to experience the Craft and Film & Media collections. Programming, exhibitions and activities will explore the processes and the people behind objects in the museum with a ‘Maker in Residence’ from the University of Brighton sharing the collections with visitors.

Collaboration with local film organisations such as the Brighton Youth Film Festival, Cine-City and Film Archive South East will explore new ways of using the spaces and collections at Hove Museum.

At Preston Manor, the emphasis will be on providing greater access to parts of this historic building, and revitalising the kitchen gardens. Improvements to the visitor experience will build a better understanding of the house, collections and those who lived and worked there.

On the Royal Pavilion Estate a series of exhibitions and displays will mark key milestones over the next four years such as the 200th anniversary of the Royal Pavilion’s creator, George IV’s, ascension to the throne, and the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The restoration of the Royal Pavilion’s Saloon will be completed in 2018 and the funding will enable an accompanying display to showcase the ‘behind the scenes’ work of  a range of specialists involved, including carpet makers, silk weavers, upholsterers, decorative artists and historians.

The Arts Council has previously recognised RPM’s sector expertise in the use of digital programming and technology to engage audiences. During  2018-22 a digital publishing programme will promote exhibitions, events, and the unexpected stories behind the collections. RPM aims to reach a million sessions per year across their various websites by the end of the four year period

Timeline of LGBTQ history.

Film made by Allsorts Youth Project, for use in Images of Brighton gallery in Brighton Museum.

A new Archaeoiogy Gallery

The famous Hove amber cup

Thanks to the generous support of a private sponsor Brighton Museum is to get a new archaeology gallery.

The new gallery will be situated in one of the museum’s two local history galleries, Exploring Brighton, will close from 8 May 2017. Objects removed from Exploring Brighton will be considered for redisplay as part of a later refresh of the museum’s approach to telling Brighton & Hove’s stories.

Plans for the structure and content of the new gallery are still being developed but there will be a strong emphasis on the personal stories of Brighton & Hove ancestors.  The museum is working with scientists in the fields of archaeology and DNA profiling, to learn new things about the people who lived locally in the past.

Recent years have seen strong local support for the development of a gallery to showcase the city and region’s rich archaeological collections, particularly since the introduction of Prehistory to the national curriculum in 2014. These factors, and recent evaluation of visitors’ experience and engagement with the city’s collections at Brighton Museum, have demonstrated demand for an archaeology gallery,

Constable and Brighton.

Chain Pier Brighton 1826-27

Go visit the current exhibition at the Art Gallery if only to see this much-reproduced image "in the paint" so to speak. It is beautifully hung and lit and seems to make more of an impression here than it did in its normal home at Tate Britain.

The rest of the exhibition has also much of interest. The paintings are grouped according to Constable's three favourite walks from which he drew his inspiration; west to Shoreham, north to the Devil's Dyke and east to the Chain Pier. Everything is well lit and the information boards are succinct and easily read.

See also:
The Curator speaks about the Constable Exhibition
Blue plaque to John Constable unveiled
Rainstorm over the Sea

Pride 2017: a Royal Pavilion & Museums float

Pride 2016

Royal Pavilion & Museums will take part in this year’s Brighton & Hove Pride, making it the first Museum service to have a Pride float in the UK.  Pride 2017, under the title 'The Summer of Love', will mark the 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK via the Sexual Offences Act (1967). All of the RPM's  five sites – from the Royal Pavilion to Preston Manor will be represented on the float. Staff will build the float and appear on it on the day, many of them in costumes they’ve made themselves.

This is just one item in an extensive programme of projects, exhibitions, displays and activities to celebrate the 50 years since the 1967 Act.
For full programme see:- LGBTQ takes centre stage at Brighton Museum.

Prinny's piano to return to Pavilion

The Royal Pavilion & Museums Foundation has supported the purchase of King George IV’s only surviving grand piano at auction.  The historic piece was secured after a successful bid of £62k was made using money from Art Fund, Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, The Leche Trust and the Royal Pavilion Foundation. The piano could be on display at the Royal Pavilion as early as the Easter weekend 2017.

The piano, commissioned for the Royal Pavilion by George IV in c.1821, was made by Thomas Tomkison and is the most celebrated of Tomkison’s surviving works. The maker’s flamboyant approach to case decoration is thought to have appealed to George’s Francophile and adventurous taste. The piano, described as an elegant, rosewood grand, is extravagantly decorated, inlaid with brass, gilt mouldings, and gilt turnbuckles and has elegantly carved legs.

At a cost of £236 5/- the piano was well over twice the cost of a standard top quality English grand piano at the time. Accounts reveal that Tomkison supplied other ‘extra elegant’ pianos to the Prince Regent, but no others are known to have survived.

More info:- http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/press-release/party-princes-piano-returns-palace

A Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust

Next week councillors at Brighton & Hove City Council’s policy, resources and growth committee will decide on whether to establish a trust from April 2018, together with a 25 year funding agreement, to be reviewed every five years. It would mean management of all the city’s museums transferring into the charitable organisation with ownership of the buildings and the city’s collections staying with the council.

The trust would include the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Hove Museum & Art Gallery, the Booth Museum of Natural History and Preston Manor.

If agreed, the council would create an interim board of trustees, to include councillors. Staff working for the service would transfer to the new trust once it is established. The taxable benefits of trusts - a tried and tested model for museum services - include gift aid on admissions, business rate relief and cultural exemption on income. The trust model came out as the most financially sustainable long-term for the service, with a surplus of around £250,000 projected by 2022/23. The council will support the new trust in its first three years of business to allow it time to develop new sources of income.

Due to central government budget reductions which are affecting all council services, the city’s museums, including the Royal Pavilion, could face having their council funds reduced from £1.145million in 2016/17 to £753,000 in 2019/20. In addition, a building condition survey in 2015 identified a need for £1m a year for repairs and maintenance. Many of the buildings are heritage listed. A trust would have more scope than the council to raise funds to support the maintenance budget.

Brighton & Hove's museums service is one of only 23 in the country to be part of Arts Council England's Major Partner Museum Programme. It is also the lead organisation for museums development in the sector across the South East, supporting 300 museums. The city’s five museums hold World Art, Natural History and Decorative Art collections which are nationally designated and internationally significant, as well as other collections, including archaeology, fashion, fine art and local history.

The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is also part of the ambitious Royal Pavilion Estate heritage project to reinvigorate and reconnect the buildings and landscape of the Estate and improve the centrepiece of Brighton & Hove’s cultural quarter. Phase one works involve a major refurbishment of the nationally-important Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange.

Experimental Motion

Coming soon to a gallery near you. - In fact the Spotlight Gallery of Brighton Museum  on
22 October 2016.

A new display will tell the story of experimental film-making in Brighton & Hove, from 1896 to the present day.









Unknown to many, both Brighton and Hove have played a rich and important part in international film history. Early film-making pioneers including George Albert Smith and James Williamson, who became known as the Brighton School and worked here at the turn of the 20th century, while modern and contemporary filmmakers and moving image artists – like Jeff Keen, Ben Wheatley and Ben Rivers – have cemented the city’s status as a hotbed of experimental film.

Aboriginal ancestral remains returned to Australia

A special Handover Ceremony to mark the return of aboriginal ancestral remains from Brighton Museum to Australia has taken place at Australia House, London.

The ceremony on Oct.14, organised by the Australian High Commission, saw the ancestral remains returned to the Ngarrindjeri Community of South Australia, from whom historical information suggests they were taken. The remains were received at the ceremony by Mr Major Sumner, Elder and representative of the Ngarrindjeri Community. The ceremony was attended by Brighton & Hove Councillor Alan Robins and Director of the Royal Pavilion and Head of Museums and Arts, Janita Bagshawe.

The remains were originally donated to Brighton Museum by keen scientist and collector, Frederick William Lucas in November 1925. They were part of a large group of osteological and ethnographical items, most of which had been on loan to the Museum since September 1922.

The repatriation is part of an Australian Government programme to assist Indigenous communities in pursuing the unconditional return of ancestral remains held in overseas collections and within Australia. So far, more than 1,000 Indigenous Australian ancestral remains have been returned from the United Kingdom to Traditional Custodians with the support of the Australian Government’s Indigenous Repatriation Program.

The repatriation process for Brighton started in 2005 when the Australian Government requested the return of five Australian Aboriginal Ancestral Remains held by Royal Pavilion & Museums: four remains in the Natural History collection, and one in the World Art collection.

In September 2008, the then Culture, Recreation & Tourism Cabinet meeting of the city council agreed to return the Natural History remains. These were collected by Major Sumner and George Trevorrow, representatives of the Ngarrindjeri Community, on Friday 15 May 2009. The occasion was marked by a ceremony outside Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

In May 2009, the Full Cabinet of the city council agreed to return the World Art remains.

The council has received a Handover Certificate, a formal record of the transfer of the remains to the Ngarrindjeri Elders representing their community.

Booth Museum - press release

There are no plans to close the Booth Museum of Natural History. Brighton & Hove City Council wants to see all its museums thrive and put on a sound financial footing for the future; there is no doubt that we face significant financial challenges but no proposals have been put forward to close any of the museums.

Martin Battersby

Oedipus and the Sphinx, c1965

This oil-on-canvas hung for many years over the staircase in Brighton museum but has now disappeared, presumably into store. This is a pity since the painter, Martin Battersby, has  strong connections to Brighton, not only on account of residence at 36 Sussex Square 1964 -1973, but also the enthusiastic role he played with the then Pavilion curator John Morley in establishing the Museum's 20thC collection. The two travelled to France together and at relatively low cost built up the impressive collection of furniture and decorative items that is on display today.

Martin Battersby, collector, historian, designer, decorator and artist, played a crucial role through the 1960s and 1970s in promoting the reappraisal of Art Nouveau and the decorative art of the '20s and '30s. He was a gifted trompe-l'oeil artist with a particular fondness for the sphinx motif.  In 1959 he painted murals on this theme for the Sphinx Room of the Carlyle Hotel, New York and two years later showed paintings of sphinx subjects at the Arthur Jeffress Gallery, London.

While at 36 Sussex Square he lavishly furnished and decorated his flat in the art deco style and painted a magnificent mural of Brighton over the common staircase. He also opened his own 'Sphinx Studio' in Prince Albert Street, as a retail outlet for his silkscreen furnishing fabrics and papers.

 5 years ago 'Harlequin-Sphinx' fetched $4,630 at auction.