HRH The Duke of Gloucester to officially open Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery

The new Museum & Art Gallery re-opened in the former Music Hall and 13th Century Vaughan’s Mansion on 1 April 2014 and welcomed more than 80,000 visitors in its first year.

During his visit, The Duke will meet Museum staff, councillors and local dignitaries, before taking a guided tour of the Museum & Art Gallery.

Owned and managed by Shropshire Council, the new Museum & Art Gallery is the result of a ground-breaking restoration project that cost more than £10m and saw 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.

Since it opened, the newly refurbished Museum has run a varied temporary exhibitions programme from contemporary art and international photography to the current ‘Archaeopteryx’ dinosaur display and forthcoming ‘Brick City’ LEGO® exhibition.

The building is also being used for a vast range of meetings, events, music and social gatherings, contributing to the development of a successful Cultural Quarter in the county town.

In June 2015 Shropshire law firm Lanyon Bowdler became the first corporate sponsors of Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery.

Tina Woodward, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member responsible for museums, said: “I’m delighted that HRH The Duke of Gloucester will be officially opening Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, and that we will have the opportunity to show him around this fabulous new facility, which is really putting Shrewsbury and Shropshire on the visitor map.

“The Museum and Art Gallery has proved to be extremely popular with visitors from near and far since it opened its doors to the public last year, and our dedicated team of staff and volunteers have worked hard to bring in new activities, events and exhibitions that keep our local residents, businesses and visitors from around the world coming through the doors.”