Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Newly opened, we were intrigued what we would find at Plymouth's Box Museum which is an amalgamation of the City's Museum, Art Gallery and Archive. Contrary to what the Moaning Minnies at the Guardian, and other critics have said, the Box does not look like a shipping container blown up from the docks. When we visited in the sunshine it was a sparkling and impressive front which merged old and new impressively. And when you get inside the design shows that it is full of light and terrific spaces. We had booked lunch and really enjoyed our meal sitting in the bright open foyer looking out at the square and the church opposite (part of the Box complex). The first room we visited was the 'Woolly Mammoth' room. Engaging as soon as you enter. The displays were very involving being a mixture of display, slide show, video and more. and there were stories imaginatively told everywhere...whether it was the message in a bottle that had taken over 100 years to reach its final destination or stories of some of the great Victorian collectors, again presented enticingly.... Quantity and quality everywhere you looked...... The story of Drake of course brought out his historical significance, his place as Hero, but also told, inevitably, of his slave trading, and this is how it should be. Everything in context. Thank you Plymouth Museums! At one point the story of Plymouth was shown in wrap-around cinema style....very good we thought. The 'Art Room' almost made you gasp at the sheer scale of the full-height wall display... And I haven't seen paintings displayed so well before...with themes you can pick up on yourself. with lots to interest including, for instance, Joshua Reynolds sketchbooks....... and here the preliminary sketches to the side of the main seascape which we have seen often in Newlyn... all told a Museum you would want to return to....often. The staff were brilliant. It's free. What more do you want? I hope those critics scurried back to London as quickly as they came....it's where they belong! It's the visitors who are important and, as far as I can see, no-one will leave unimpressed, and wanting to come back.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
Categories |