100 000 Visitors

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Celebrating 100,000 visitors since May

The Holburne Museum re-opened on 14 May 2011 and is delighted to have welcomed 100,000 visitors through its doors to date. This is almost four times what the Museum previously expected in a whole year and exceeds the annual target of 90,000 visitors five months in advance.

Following a three year closure for restoration and extension the Museum has been transformed into a welcoming and interesting place to visit with an incredible wealth of activities on offer for all ages.

The Museum’s development project restored the existing Grade I listed building and Eric Parry’s extension doubled the amount of available display space. Imaginative new displays, many of them interactive, and many previously unseen objects have delighted the Museum’s visitors.

Alexander Sturgis, The Museum’s Director notes, “It’s been an amazing year for the Museum and we are all thrilled that we’ve hit this milestone before Christmas. What is even more encouraging than the numbers flooding through our door is that they seem to like what they find and the feedback we’ve been getting from visitors has been endlessly uplifting.

We would like to thank every single visitor who’s been to look at our new exhibitions and extension; you have made our success and really put us back on the map. Also we’d like to invite particularly those who haven’t yet been, to visit soon; we know there must be a few thousand of you still! We’d encourage you to come before the Gainsborough exhibition closes or Field of Light finishes in January.”

Isobel Scott-Clarke (below) was the lucky 100,000 visitor to be welcomed by the Museum. Surprised and happy Isobel said, “I’m pretty stunned to be the 100,000th visitor to the Holburne, but it is really exciting and lovely.” A textile artist from Wiltshire, Isobel has visited the Museum three times since it re-opened in May, and came to Bath to combine a visit to friend and to the Museum.

Isobel will receive membership for a year for the Friends of the Holburne, which means that she won’t have to pay to visit exhibitions as well as the many other benefits the package affords, such as trips and talks. Karen Wallis, the Holburne’s artist in residence during the development project, was also on hand to capture the moment in one of her wonderful sketches.

Ends

For further information or images please contact:
Katie Jenkins
Direct Line
Email k.jenkins@bath.ac.uk

Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations until 22 January 2012
£6.95 / concessions
Bruce Munro’s Field of Light until 8 January FREE

Christmas Opening Hours
Closed 24 to 26 December and 1 January
Open daily 10am to 5pm, Sunday and Bank Holidays 11am to 5pm
During Field of Light the ground floor shop and café are open until 7pm

The Holburne Museum
Great Pulteney Street
Bath BA2 4DB
www.holburne.org

Published on: 14/12/2011