Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

Overview

The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herbert, a Coventry industrialist and philanthropist whose gifts enabled the original building to be opened in 1960. Building began in 1939, with an interruption by the Second World War, and the Herbert opened in 1960. In 2008, it reopened after a £14 million refurbishment.

The Herbert is run by Culture Coventry, a registered charity, and admission is free. It derives financial support from donations, sales at the museum shop, and hiring the buildings out. In 2010, the museum and gallery received more than 300,000 visitors, making it one of the most popular free tourist attractions in the West Midlands.

Benedictine Museum and foundation: Pre-war

Museums in Coventry before the Herbert included the museum of the Coventry City Guild and the Benedictine Museum, opened by J. B. Shelton in the 1930s. However, Coventry City Council's collection of art treasures and museum pieces were housed in various buildings and so the council acquired a half acre site over a number of years costing £35,375. In 1938 the philanthropist Sir Alfred Herbert donated £100,000 to the Corporation to erect a Gallery and Museum on the site. Plans were drawn up by the Leicester architect Albert Herbert, a cousin of Sir Alfred, and building began the following year.

The city's destruction during the Coventry Blitz meant construction was suspended with only the basement completed. City architect Donald Gibson's radical rebuilding plan for Coventry city centre became War time propaganda for the post-war reconstruction of Britain. But, Post-war economies required Gibson to concentrate on a building programme for the suburbs. Completion of the first building under his plan was delayed until 1953.

New plans for the museum were drawn up in 1952 By the Leicester architects, Albert Herbert & Son, and in May 1954 the foundation stone was laid by Herbert, who also donated a further £100,000 to the project. Herbert died in May 1957, and the museum and art gallery that bears his name was opened on 9 March 1960 by his third wife Lady Herbert.

Refurbishment: 2005–2008

The first phase of a two-phase refurbishment was completed in 2005 with £3 million of funds from Coventry City Council, Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund. During the refurbishment, it was considered that a painting by 17th-century artist Luca Giordano was too large and fragile to be moved. Instead the 3.02 by 5.83 metres (9.9 by 19.1 ft) canvas, which has been with The Herbert since the 1960s and described as one of the museum's most prized paintings, was boarded up in 2005 and uncovered three years later in time for the opening.

In early 2008, the second phase was completed at a cost of £14 million. A new entrance on Bayley Lane was provided, along with a 500 sq metre glass-covered court extension. The extended buildings include a new cafe area, education, training, creative media and arts information facilities, additional gallery spaces for temporary exhibitions, and facilities for conservation work and to preserve the city records and archive.

Culture Coventry

The Herbert is part of Culture Coventry, which also manages three additional local heritage sites: Coventry Transport Museum, the Priory Visitor Centre for the medieval remains of Coventry's first cathedral, and the Lunt Roman Fort situated three miles outside Coventry at Baginton.

The museum won the Guardian Family Friendly Award 2010. The same year, the gallery was shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize in recognition of its outstanding work in engaging new and diverse audiences.

Potential closure

In October 2015, it was announced that the Herbert might be permanently closed as a result of financial cuts from the Coventry Council. The museum is exploring the option of charging for entry, while noting that this could decrease its visitor numbers by a third.

Collections

Permanent gallery spaces include Sculpture, Old Masters paintings, Art Since 1900, local history and Elements (Natural History).

The museum's notable collections include a costume collection dating from around 1800 to date, with the emphasis on 19th century women's wear. The museum is now concentrating on the acquisition of more modern clothes and items from different ethnic communities in Coventry.

Another collection represents the city's history as a centre for ribbon making, which includes over 250 sample books, as well as woven Stevengraphs – a form of silk picture and bookmark, together with dyer's samples, documents, woven badges and related machinery.

The Heritage Lottery Fund granted nearly £200,000 to The Herbert and Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2008 for acquisitions in relation to the theme of peace and reconciliation.

In 2011, the museum raised £12,000 to buy The Coventry Album, a collection of paintings by William Henry Brooke in 1819. The album is one of the most important collection of historic pictures of Coventry.

Other heritage sites

Culture Coventry also administers three other local heritage sites:

History Centre

The Coventry History Centre is housed in The Herbert. Made up of what was the Coventry archives and Coventry local history, it houses the largest collection of records related to Coventry and its history.

Temporary exhibitions and special projects

In 2005, The Herbert hosted a theatre project for children, showing them what it would have been like to be evacuees in the 1940s. The event won two awards, one for excellence in the field of heritage and the other for engaging children with history.

There are four temporary exhibition spaces, and the temporary exhibition programme includes exhibition from national and international galleries such as The British Museum, V&A, Southbank Centre and Natural History Museum. Self-created exhibitions also explore local themes and social history.

In 2009 The Herbert hosted a collection of fifty watercolours from British artists such as J. M. W. Turner and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

In 2010, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the museum's opening, the Herbert held several events throughout the year. In March more than 1,000 people attended a special event where ten objects, including a 16th-century tapestry and Shakespeare's ring, illustrating the history of Warwickshire, were put on display.