Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum

http://www.cheltenhamartgallery.org.uk/

The third Baron de Ferrieres, former Mayor and MP for Cheltenham, donated forty-three paintings from Belgium and the Netherlands to the city, alongside one thousand florins towards the building of a gallery to house them. The gallery opened in 1899. With the exception of these originally donated paintings the rest of the art collection is mainly British and includes works by Stanley Spencer, Duncan Grant, Henry Tonks, William Scott and Paul Nash.

A series of galleries display an impressive Arts and Crafts collection, including furniture designed by Charles Voysey and a selection of works by local designers Charles Ashbee, Ernest Gimson and Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. Pieces made for retail outlets such as Heal's and Liberty are used to illustrate the way this Art and Crafts style was adapted for the commercial market. The gallery has a lively temporary exhibition programme showing a series of exhibitions throughout the year.

Editor's note:
The temporary exhibition space is at the entrance of the museum whilst the permanent collections are accessed through the museum's shop, up the pleasingly squeaky stairs. The Arts and Craft collection is really pleasing — jewellery, some painting, ceramics and large pieces of furniture, with more recent acquisitions, including a beautiful 'Shift Cabinet' by Wales & Wales purchased by the Friends of the Museum in 1997.

A small collection of good modern design is displayed not far from a table and inlaid chest dating from 1600. The painting collection is dispersed, somewhat domestically, in relation to these displays — tucked away is a nice Lynn Chadwick sculpture.