Derby Museum and Art Gallery will be re-opening from 7th July

With new safety measures now in place, Derby Museum and Art Gallery is set to re-open its doors to the public next week after nearly four months of closure under the Coronavirus lockdown.

Derby Museum and Art Gallery, which closed its doors to the public on 18th March in accordance with Government’s Coronavirus guidelines, has undergone a thorough safety review to ensure all of the necessary precautions are in place for the public to return from Tuesday 7th July. The museum’s re-opening is an important part of Derby’s economic and social recovery as the city emerges from lockdown.

To help with social distancing, visitors can expect to be admitted every 15 minutes via a new main entrance on The Strand and, once inside, will follow a one-way system with directional signage. Opening hours have been reduced to allow for enhanced cleaning and plenty of hand sanitiser stations will be available for the public to use as well as an accessible toilet.

Some areas of the Museum and Art Gallery may have limited access for a time, including the Coffee House, which will initially be offering a reduced takeaway service. Several interactive exhibits may also be closed until further notice and, for the time-being, Pickford’s House will not re-open.

Tony Butler, Executive Director of Derby Museums commented:

“Museums are experts in caring for things and the safety of our visitors and staff is no exception. We have taken very thorough steps to ensure the Museum and Art Gallery complies with the Government’s recommended safety guidelines, and we hope that these new measures will put our visitors at ease and make their experience as enjoyable as possible as we welcome everyone back.”

From Tuesday 7th July, the Museum and Art Gallery’s new opening times will be as follows:
• Tuesday-Saturday (10.30am-4.30pm – last admission 4pm)
• Sunday (12-4pm – last admission 3.30pm).
Entry remains free, and Derby Museums continues to welcome generous donations from the public which can be made through its contactless donation facility.

For those who are not yet able to visit the museum in person, Derby Museums’ new microsite, Derby Museums from Home, will be making all sorts of playful, surprising and quirky content available online over the coming months. This will also be shared across Derby Museums’ social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube – all @derbymuseums).

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For more information, please contact Vicky Washington, Marketing and Communications Manager at Derby Museums: vicky@derbymuseums.org / 01332 641901.

Notes for editors

Derby Museums
Derby Museums is an independent charitable trust which is responsible for the rich cultural and creative history of Derby. It manages three sites across the city, the Museum and Art Gallery, Pickford’s House and the Silk Mill, and holds and curates all the art and collections within them, including the world’s largest collection of paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby.

Derby Museums aims to bring as many of the objects and treasures in the collections into the public domain as is practically possible and present them in ways that delight and inspire, via education and learning programmes, events and exhibitions, in order to share knowledge and inspire creativity and making amongst the people of Derby.

As a charity Derby Museums relies on funding and grants from organisations and donations from businesses and the general public, all of which is gratefully received in order to ensure that admission to the museums remains free for all.
Museum of Making
Derby Museums has secured major grant funding of £9.4m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £2.5m from Arts Council England, £3.7million from the Government-awarded Local Growth Fund allocation of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (the private sector-led partnership promoting economic growth across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) and support from a range of charitable trusts and foundations for the £17m development to develop Derby Silk Mill to be the new Museum of Making.

The Museum of Making is being delivered by an Alliance Board made up of partners including Speller Metcalfe, Bauman Lyons Architects, The Creative Core, Derry Building Services, GCAConsulting, Preston Barbar and Derby Museums using the Integrated Project Insurance (IPI) model, facilitated by IPI Initiatives. IPI is one of the new models of procurement and construction being trialled by the Government as a way of reducing risk and Derby Museums is only the second organisation in the UK to use this construction model.

The project will open up the whole of the Silk Mill, creating beautiful spaces to inspire our visitors and will provide access to 100% of Derby Museums’ collections of Making and Social History. The new museum will have our communities at its heart and be uniquely co-produced with the people of Derby.

Derby Museums’ Endowment Campaign
Derby Museums has been awarded a Heritage Endowment Grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Over the next four years Derby Museums aims to raise £1 million that will be matched pound for pound by The Fund. This will create a £2 million Endowment Fund that will be permanently invested to provide an income to help to support Derby Museums’ long term future.

Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. Derby Museums has been funded by Arts Council England since 2012 to deliver improved museum facilities and services in Derby and from April 2018 is a National Portfolio Organisation.