The Wilson: A modern gem in a Regency setting

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Art galleries and museums everywhere are having to expand, often in tight spaces. Vivien Northcote visited the Wilson Gallery in Cheltenham, England, to see how they have managed a second extension

Cheltenham Spa is a Regency town that still has a large number of Regency buildings complete with their decorative ironwork. The only mediaeval building is the Minster Church of St Mary’s, which lies just behind The Wilson in the centre of town. Otherwise the town is a mixture of buildings of all periods, including the modern, into which category comes the new extension to the Art Gallery and Museum.

The original building, which still lies alongside the new extension, is an imposing high-Victorian building. Immediately beside it is the first extension, which was designed with an Arts and Crafts look. The recent designers, Berman Guedes Stretton, had to find a look which complemented both these earlier buildings. After a design competition and comments from the people of Cheltenham, including the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, who were heavily involved in the funding, a very modern frontage was put in place as an infill between the first extension and a shop building. This shop now houses The Guild at 51, the showroom for the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen, where some very beautiful craft objects in the local tradition can be found.

The Wilson has won two Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA) South West 2014 awards and recently has been awarded a national RIBA prize highlighting design excellence. The four adjoining buildings now make up a disparate group but overall the effect is an excellent example of in-filling design without a pastiche effect of an imitation Regency façade. The original museum was renamed The Wilson after Edward Wilson the Antarctic explorer who lived here.

Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum has long had a tradition of interesting and challenging exhibitions and the increased space afforded by the three new large galleries will allow The Wilson to continue its excellent outreach and education work. The new building was opened with the arrival of Rodin’s The Kiss which has come on loan from Tate Britain until September. This is the second time that this dramatic sculpture by Rodin  has been in Cheltenham. When E.P. Warren, a wealthy Bostonian, who commissioned The Kiss, offered it to his home town of Lewes, East Sussex it was considered too erotic and was eventually offered to any provincial gallery that would pay the costs of transport and insurance. In 1933 Cheltenham took up the offer, and it stayed there for six years. Eventually it was lent to The Tate, which bought it in 1952.

For the summer The Wilson has a family exhibition – Meet Rex and other dinosaurs – until 28September. From 11 October until 30 November there is ‘Ahead of the Curve’ – contemporary studio ceramics and glass from Chinese artists. At the same time (15 October – 9 November) there are the Illustration Awards 2014, which will show international submissions from established and emerging artists on the theme of ‘Being Human’.These exhibitions are followed by the Jerwood Drawing Prize from 22 November, 2014 until 4 January, 2015.

The Wilson is, however, also home to one of the Designated Collections of Arts and Crafts furniture, silver, jewellery, papers and other items. These have long been the jewel in the crown of the Museum. The collection is so large that it is impossible to list here but there are three excellent catalogues available (see panel, right). All the main artists are represented, including William Morris, architect Charles Voysey (1857–1941), Arts and Crafts designer C.R. Ashbee (1863–1942) and the Guild of Handicrafts, architect and designer Henry Wilson (1864–1934) and the Artificers’ Guild, architect and furniture designer Ernest Gimson (1864–1919) and many other more recent artists, including the sculptor and letter-designer Eric Gill. There are some great treasures in this collection, which is much too large for everything to be on display at the same time. So if visiting to see a particular item, it would be worth checking with the museum to see if it is on display or could be seen in the stores.

The Baron de Ferrieres Collection is also to be found at The Wilson. The basis of this collection came into the museum in 1898 as a gift from Baron de Ferrieres and includes a wide selection of paintings: Dutch and Flemish 17th- and 18th-century, Belgian, Danish and Dutch 19th-century, French 17th-to 20th-century, Italian 16th-to 19th-century  and American, Austrian, German, Polish and Swiss 18th-to 20th-century. Many of these are by relatively unknown artists but there is a beautiful still-life painting of Flowers in a Glass Vase by Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) and two by Jan Steen (1626–1729) of The Lean Kitchen and The Fat Kitchen, which are well worth seeing. There are also four intriguing panoramas of the surrounding countryside by unknown primitive painters.

A series of galleries in the old Victorian building house a fairly typical provincial collection which has not so far been redesigned in line with the new galleries. Cheltenham has a large collection of interesting costumes and other clothing, some of which can be seen. It has a collection of tiaras, one of which was designed and presented by the Friends for the millennium.

Last – but not least – there is an excellent café, which makes it possible to spend a good day exploring this outstanding museum full of objects that make it well worth an extended visit.