Inverness Museum and Art Gallery – work in progress

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery has been closed since the middle of July, and will be reopening in January 2007, with major improvements to celebrate Highland 2007 - the year Scotland celebrates Highland culture.

All the display galleries are being completely re-designed and there will be a new cafe and toilets.  The popular Discovery Centre will return, combined with a space for talks and lectures. A new glazed extension will enclose the entrance and house a lift to give access to people who find using stairs difficult.

Museum staff are working from a temporary office in Inverness Town House, along with interpretive designers Haley Sharpe Design of Leicester, to create the new displays and facilities during the period of closure. 

Museum Curator Catharine Niven said: “We will have more space to display the wonderful collections that we have.  Most of people’s favourite exhibits will go out again – they are the best things in the collections – but the new displays will present new ways of looking at them and understanding them.” 

The temporary exhibition galleries will also be refurbished to show both the museum’s art collection and visiting exhibitions to the best advantage.  The lighting was upgraded fairly recently, so the galleries will be comfortable for viewing.

There will be a programme of changing exhibitions, and the programme will open with ‘Fonn ‘s Duthchas – Land and Legacy’, an exhibition created by the National Museums of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland and The Highland Council, with additional contributions from other Highland organisations and individuals.  Fonn ‘s Duthchas has been created to celebrate Scotland’s year of Highland culture.

When it reopens in January, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery will be open from Monday to Saturday, from 10 am to 5 pm, and admission will continue to be free of charge.