Editorial A Cambridge courtyard contains a Supplement of recent acquisitions at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to mark the completion of the conversion and redevelopment of the Museum’s courtyard, situated at the south side between the Smith and Brewer building (1924–36) and the 1975 extension. After a period of complete closure, the Museum re-opened in June, even though not all the galleries had been refurbished or rehung. The actual celebration takes place early this month, when the new exhibition space – the Mellon Gallery – will be inaugurated with a display that highlights the Museum’s important collection of Impressionist paintings and drawings (6th July to 26th September). Taken as a whole, this new development ensures that the quality of the Fitzwilliam’s presentation is now on a par with that of its exceptional collections. There seems to be a new spirit flowing through the Museum, and this positive attitude can only be greeted with enthusiasm. The conversion of what was essentially an inaccessible area into a public space has become such a regular feature of developments of this kind that it is hardly surprising that the Fitzwilliam is no exception. Nor is it altogether surprising that the initial impression is that the new café and shop have taken priority over everything else. But it has to be said that a pressing need for educational facilities, seminar rooms, curatorial offices and conservation studios, as well as space for the reserve collection of ceramics and a Ceramic Study Centre, has been effectively answered by John Miller & Partners, whose design leaves the ‘feel’ of a courtyard intact and exploits the abundance of its daylight to full advantage, especially in the ingenious top-lighting of the conservation studios. The Mellon Gallery, which runs parallel to the Adeane Gallery on the first floor in the 1975 extension, is perhaps a touch too narrow for visual comfort and has no natural lighting, but the latter problem has been brilliantly solved by the inclusion of artificial lighting of the kind seen in the same architects’ new rooms at Tate Britain, and one would hope that a similar solution, which almost fools the visitor into thinking there is indeed daylight, will inform future developments elsewhere. For larger exhibitions, the Mellon Gallery can be opened up by dismantling a hidden doorway to the Adeane Gallery (which does have the benefit of natural light and will normally be used for the display of twentieth-century art). Indeed, the way in which the Courtyard Development has been linked to the 1975 extension is altogether seamless. The division between the courtyard and the Smith and Brewer building is more obvious, but here integration is ensured by the view into the latter building through its tall windows (Fig.A), inviting visitors to explore the collections of
THIS MONTH’ S I S S UE
A. The Courtyard Development, by John Miller & Partners, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 2004. (© Dennis Gilbert).
ceramics and ancient art, a great improvement on what used to be a tucked-away and undervisited part of the Museum. At the time of writing, the installation near the courtyard along the front of the Museum of a ‘Treasure Room’, today’s fashionable solution to the display of precious medieval and Renaissance objects, was still in preparation. But perhaps the most enlightened feat at the south side is the overhaul of the 1975 extension, which has been stripped of its threadbare 1970s decor. Approaching it via its refitted entrance, one is immediately confronted with a set of glass doors to the Museum’s splendidly refurbished library, which is now accessible to anyone, with or without appointment: a sympathetically symbolic touch in what is, after all, a university museum. With their low public profile and near uniform underfunding, university museums present particular problems of their own, ones to which we shall return on another occasion. But developments such as the Fitzwilliam’s are indicative of a growing awareness at official levels of the fact that several of them hold collections of a breadth and quality matching those of the national museums. The Fitzwilliam has made a triumphant gesture towards such recognition. In Manchester the Whitworth Art Gallery has well-advanced plans for a programme of expansion and redevelopment. Equally, it is encouraging that the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, whose bid to the Heritage Lottery Memorial Fund for the redevelopment of its building will be re-submitted this month, is engaged in formulating its plans to bring its presentation into the twenty-first century. the burl ington m agazin e
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