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Museum and Art Gallery Set for Make-Over

A £15 million scheme to transform Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Bedford Museum has moved a step closer.

Bedford Borough Council has given the green light to proposals from consultants to give the art gallery and museum in Castle Lane a major makeover by agreeing to pump £2 million into the project, subject to the rest of the funding coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources.

The proposals, in a feasibility study produced by Lord Cultural Resources Planning and Management, would see a regional cultural attraction created by combining the art gallery and museum displays in a new landmark building.

The new facility would include interactive and hands-on displays of historical art and local heritage in larger exhibition galleries. More education and learning spaces would be provided and a new reception, café/restaurant, shop, toilets and covered courtyard could also be built.

Bedford’s cutting edge art gallery - the BCA Gallery - would be given space to display contemporary visual art in the building and there would be room for community project Bedford Creative Arts (BCA) to house facilities.

The listed Bedford Gallery building fronting Castle Lane would be brought back into public use, providing displays on the BBC’s presence in Bedford during the Second World War and additional space for touring exhibitions and events.

The consultants also recommended that admission to Bedford Museum and Cecil Higgins Art Gallery should be free. This change comes into effect from August 1^st 2004.

John Moore, service manager for culture at Bedford Borough Council, says: “The main aim for this project is to provide the public with greater levels of access to the collections of the gallery and museum and improve the whole visitor experience offered to the public.

“The new facilities would be a valuable boost for the town centre and we now have an excellent opportunity to put Bedford firmly on the cultural map.”

Background information

• Lord Cultural Resources Planning and Management were appointed in February 2003 by a steering group of representatives of all political groups at Bedford Borough Council and Cecil Higgins trustees to undertake a feasibility study to further improve facilities at Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Museum and BCA Gallery and to bring back Bedford Gallery back into use.
• Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Museum, BCA Gallery and the independent John Bunyan Museum make up Bedford’s cultural quarter. The facilities are based in Castle Lane in the heart of the town.

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