Successful Easter weekend for new Shrewsbury Museum

Only a few weeks into its opening the museum is already attracting visitors from around the world, including from Sweden, Germany, Israel, the USA, Chile and Australia.

The estimated figure includes visitors attending the Museum & Art Gallery including the Frank Cohen exhibition, as well as the many other facilities at the museum, such as the café, visitor information centre, Roman Gallery and Pre-historic Gallery.

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, owned and managed by Shropshire Council, opened on 1 April 2014, following extensive and ground-breaking restoration work. The restoration project has seen two buildings – Shrewsbury’s Victorian Music Hall and the 13th century Vaughan’s Mansion – renovated and restored to create a vast new museum and spectacular gallery space, together with function rooms suitable for meetings, conferences and even weddings.

The new museum houses a vast collection of exhibitions, exploring subjects from geology to natural history via art, archaeology and costume.

Louise Cross, Shropshire Council’s visitor economy service manager, said: “We’ve had some really positive feedback from visitors. One visitor said ‘the museum is a wonderful addition to Shrewsbury and would recommend it to friends, relations and any visitor to the town’.”

Tina Woodward, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member for visitor economy, added: “Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery has enjoyed a fantastic Easter weekend, with numbers looking very promising. There has been a constant flow of visitors and the reaction has been excellent. This is great news for the museum, and a credit for all the hard work and dedication so many people have given to this remarkable project. The renovation of Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery has been an extremely important project for Shrewsbury and for Shropshire, and we look forward to continuing to welcome visitors to this new and exciting landmark attraction.”