Confirmed: When Buxton Museum and Art Gallery will reopen

After months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery is finally set to re-open to visitors. 

Derbyshire County Council has confirmed its museum on Terrace Road - which has been closed since late October - will open its doors on Tuesday (18 May). 

Visitors can find out about visiting and pre-book admission tickets by going to www.derbyshire.gov.uk/buxtonmuseum. Admission is free.

During lockdown, the staff have provided a digital service through the museum’s blog and ensured the collections have not been put at risk while staff have been working from home.

Councillor Barry Lewis, Derbyshire County Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Culture, Tourism and Climate Change, said: “We are delighted to be opening Buxton Museum and Art Gallery after so long. The staff are very much looking forward to having visitors back and can’t wait to show people the changing programme of exhibitions they have worked hard putting together for them.”

The annual Derbyshire Open Art exhibition has been postponed but the museum will be showing Across Time – A Retrospective, the work of Brian Nolan (1931-2019).

Brian’s picture Kestrel at Kinder - painted in the landscape towards the end of his painting career because of failing eyesight - won the Derbyshire Open Art Exhibition trophy in 2004.

For more than 40 years, Brian was a familiar figure in the Dark Peak, setting out from his home in Hayfield to paint out of doors, sheltering under trees and in barns and capturing the majesty of the Dark Peak landscape in all weathers. The exhibition runs until 5 September.

In complete contrast is Full Circle – Back to Where We Began.

Long-time friends Susan Dodd and Penny Kealey are exhibiting their recent work together. Unable to work even more collaboratively during lockdown, and with very different styles, the works share a common thread of interests and preoccupations in their love of the strange, obscure, and mystical, and how these are manifest in ideas and symbols.

Penny’s work finds inspiration in imagery found in Romanesque carving and medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Susan’s work is rooted in Victorian cabinets of curiosity, the shrines and reliquaries of medieval Europe, and the colour of feasts, fairs and circuses. This exhibition closes on 25 July.

The museum is also celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the pavilions in the gardens at Buxton on 10 August 1871, with an exhibition of objects relating to the gardens in Victorian times.

From admission tickets to sporting trophies and programmes of thrilling music, people in Victorian times enjoyed and appreciated the park, as much as we have all done during recent months.

As well as special exhibitions, the permanent installations tell the story of the geology and archaeology of the Peak District, a fitting tribute to the Peak District National Park which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. And the shop is always a place to find a special card or unique gift.

For further information, contact Ros Westwood MBE FMA, Derbyshire Museums Manager, by emailing ros.westwood@derbyshire.gov.uk. 

Enquiries about the museum can be sent to buxton.museum@derbyshire.gov.uk. 

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