Happy birthday to a St Albans favourite

St Albans Museum + Gallery celebrated its fifth birthday this June

St Albans Museum + Gallery has proven to be one of St Albans’ most popular cultural spots, with a host of tantalising exhibitions, engaging events and immersive activities and it has now reached a new milestone: its fifth birthday.

Since the Museum + Gallery opened in June 2018 after a £7.75million restoration project, nearly 1 million visitors have enjoyed exhibitions, events, activities, and the popular Courtroom Café. And the national and East of England regional Annual Museum Survey 2022 reported that the total economic impact of visitors to the local St Albans economy was nearly £2million.

Set over three floors, the state-of-the-art gallery spaces showcase over 2,000 years of priceless heritage and display contemporary artworks –sharing local, national and world treasures with all.

More than 50 exhibitions have been offered – many thanks to fundamental partnerships –and the community has attended a diverse host of events. St Albans Museum + Gallery also offers great learning programmes that engage approximately 1,000 school children each year.

In 2019, St Albans Museum + Gallery displayed the breathtaking sculptures and archival works of Barbara Hepworth (Barbara Hepworth: Artist in Society 1948-53) in partnership with UH Arts + Culture. This partnership also presented the largest exhibition of Henry Moore’s coalmining drawings in the captivating, Henry Moore: Drawing in the Dark, exhibition.

Contributing to St Albans Museum + Gallery’s lasting legacy, other community exhibitions have included SquatLife, which explored homelessness in St Albans, Arriving and Belonging, which discussed the stories of the city’s Jewish community, and a range of delightful in-house exhibitions such as The Chroniclers of History, The Pickling Project, and the current Time for Tea which explores the fascinating journey of tea from leaf to cup and the worldwide significance of the popular beverage.

St Albans Museum + Gallery is open daily 11am – 5pm. Free Entry. Visit stalbansmuseums.org.uk @stalbansmuseums