This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Albert Memorial Museum is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Coordinates: Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on Queen Street, Exeter, Devon, England is the largest museum in the city.
Contents |
History
Initially proposed by Sir Stafford Northcote as a practical memorial to Prince Albert, an appeal fund was launched in 1861 and the first phases of the building were completed by 1868. The Devon and Exeter Albert Memorial, as it was originally known, provided an integrated museum, art gallery, library, reading room, school of art and school of science in the manner long advocated by Prince Albert.
In 1899 York Wing was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, and at the same time the title of Royal Albert Memorial was granted.
The building has changed little since then although the city library moved out of the Museum in 1930, the school of science ultimately developed into the University of Exeter and the school of art is now the University of Plymouth's Faculty of Art & Education. The Museum then gradually expanded to fill the whole building.
RAMM is now a hub museum under the government's Renaissance Programme 1
Collections
Archeology, Coins and Medals, Costume and Textiles, Decorative and Applied Art, Fine Art, Natural Sciences, World Cultures, 1.5 million objects in total. Present collecting focuses largely on objects of local interest.
Fine Art
The Museum's fine art collection comprises over 7,000 objects in an eclectic mix of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, representing important British artists and celebrating the museum's location in the South West.
The many donors who contributed to the collection are too numerous to list but include Kent Kingdon (an upholsterer and interior designer), Sir Harry Veitch (owner of the famous horticultural firm Veitch and Sons) and John Lane (founder of the famous publishing firm The Bodley Head).[1]
Veitch Memorial Lecture
At the end of every July, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum holds a plant-orientated lecture in memory of Sir Harry Veitch.[2]
Redevelopment
The building is closed to the public from 1 December 2007 until 2010 for redevelopment. The Heritage Lottery Fund has contributed nearly £10million to Exeter City Council's £15million redevelopment project that will allow RAMM to grow and develop to meet 21st Century needs. 2 It includes a purpose-built off-site collections store, a complete redisplay of the collections, an extension and a new entrance from the gardens at the rear.3
While the main museum building is closed, the museum is running a small gallery in Exeter Central Library, as well as opening St Nicholas Priory to the public and schools.
There is a full programme of events and exhibitions running whilst the redevelopment project takes place.
Funding
The Museum and Art Gallery is owned and partly funded by Exeter City Council.
Other funding is from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Renaissance
References
- ^ Renaissance Programme.
- ^ "Exeter City Council - RAMM Funders" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-09.
- ^ "Exeter City Council - A Brief History" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-09.
External links
 This article related to a museum in the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Devon article is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 21 November 2008, at 23:09.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Albert Memorial Museum".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.