Leadership

Campaigners in Swindon calling for a museum to reopen held a tea party earlier this week to mark three years since its closure.

Swindon’s Museum and Art Gallery has been closed since March 2020, when the first Covid-19 lockdown measures were announced.

Since then, Swindon Borough Council has agreed to sell the museum’s former venue, Apsley House, to a property developer.

The museum was supposed to be rehoused in a new building, but Councillor Matty Courtliff said that inflation had increased contractors’ estimates, leading to a funding shortfall.

Linda Casmaty, Chair of the Friends of Swindon Museum, told the BBC that she was “disappointed and frustrated” by the situation.

“It's not fair on the people of Swindon – it has been identified as an area of low cultural engagement,” she said. “It could be 10 to 15 years before a new museum is built.”

Instead of funding a new building for the museum, Courtliff said the council was looking into installing the museum and art exhibits on the first floor of the town’s Civic Offices, but no timeline has been provided to local residents. 

Campaigners said that the town, which has a population of more than 220,000 people, currently has no art gallery and nowhere to display its art collection.

“You need to be able to see art, it's no use looking at it in a book,” Casmaty said. “We could get so many visitors if they would open this.

“I'm very keen that Swindon could become a tourist destination and this is one of the things we need.”

The charity that runs the Exchange Theatre in North Shields has announced that it will close the venue after failing to reach an agreement with the local council over the use of the site.

The theatre, café and bar is housed in the Grade II-listed Saville Exchange building, owned by North Tyneside Council.

It will close for up to four weeks from 17 April, while it undergoes a refit, before reopening with a new operator as part of the council’s plans to develop the town.

For the past seven years, the theatre has been operated by the Exchange Theatre charity. Tony Bridges, Chair of the charity’s board, said it had created a space to inspire future generations through the arts, ensuring the arts were accessible to all, not just to “one section of society”.

“It is with sadness that we are preparing to leave the building”, a spokesperson for the charity said.

John Sparkes, Director of Regeneration and Economic Development at North Tyneside Council, said that the building is key to plans for creating a vibrant “Cultural Quarter” in the town.

He added that the new operators, selected through an open tender process, were prepared to invest significantly in the building. 

“We'll be working closely with the new operator on the transfer of the building and look forward to seeing this cultural landmark flourish in the future”, he said.