The Hunterian at Kelvin Hall
Update at December 2013.
The University of Glasgow has entered a unique partnership with Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and the National Library of Scotland which will see the transformation of one of the city’s landmark buildings, Kelvin Hall, into an exciting new centre of excellence for cultural heritage collections.
Funding from the partners and from the Heritage Lottery Fund has been secured for the first phase of redevelopment of Kelvin Hall. This phase, which will complete in the summer of 2016, will deliver the following:
- Secure and publicly accessible storage for the study collections of The Hunterian, the University of Glasgow's internationally-important museum and art gallery, and of related collections from Glasgow’s Museums. Around 1.5million objects currently in storage at various sites around the city will be relocated to a central collections hub with state of the art facilities.
- The Hunterian Collections Study and Research Centre, promoting innovative object-based research, teaching and learning for Higher education and wider educational audiences.
- A new home for and greatly improved access to The National Library of Scotland’s Scottish Screen Archive (more than 100 years of Scottish history on film and video).
- A new digital portal for all three partners, bringing the collections seamlessly together online.
- A community learning base, where the public can explore and learn about the collections.
- A Centre for Cultural and Heritage Skills - a national hub for in-service training, staff development and knowledge and creative exchange.
- The Kelvin Hall will continue to house sports facilities, with plans for a state-of-the-art Glasgow Club included as part of the redevelopment.
The Hunterian’s ‘public’ galleries (Museum, Art Gallery and The Mackintosh House) will remain on the University campus where they are currently.
The timetable for the Kelvin Hall project is as follows:
HLF FUNDING APPROVED - September 2013
ENABLING WORKS COMMENCED - October 2013
MAIN CONTRACTOR APPOINTED - April 2014
MAIN WORKS COMMENCE - May 2014
MAIN WORKS COMPLETE - March 2016
FIT OUT COMMENCES - March 2016
HUNTERIAN FIT OUT COMPLETES - April 2016
MOVE AND OCCUPANCY - April 2016 – October 2016
The University of Glasgow and its partners have the option, following a further fundraising campaign, to create new public exhibition and art spaces at Kelvin Hall in a second phase of development.