Lofty ambitions: York opens up its 'secret gallery'

In 2002, when I first started at York Museums Trust as its first chief executive, I was shown the “secret gallery” in York Art Gallery.

I had to climb into the roof space from one of the galleries through a hatch before stepping onto some scaffolding.

The exterior of York Art Gallery. Photo by Peter Heaton.

There before me was a space that had not been seen by the public for decades

There before me was a space that had not been seen by the public for decades.

The grand Victorian roof of York Art Gallery had been hidden away in the 1950s, by a glass ceiling, an attempt to create a more modern gallery to protect the fine art collections on show. Since then visitors have had no idea what was above their heads.

Ever since, the idea of opening up that space has never been far from my thoughts. But it was only when we received a bequest of more than £2 million from a York brother and sister, Peter and Karen Madsen, did the idea become a possibility.

Their bequest enabled us to explore whether such a project was feasible and what our options were. Once we had agreed the design with the architects Ushida Findlay and Simpsons and Brown, we fundraised for the £8 million project.

We are grateful to the Madsens and have named the new suite of three galleries on the ground floor in their memory.

The opening up of the “Secret Gallery” become one of the main aspects of the development, with a new mezzanine gallery created below the grand roof trusses.

This, combined with a new first floor gallery and the opportunity to move into a wing of the building previously occupied by York Archives has meant we now have created 60 per cent more exhibition space within the original footprint of the building.

We now have eight galleries instead of five, enabling us to show much more of our collections. York Art Gallery has a distinguished history of acquisition and is one of only a few regional collections that is able to reflect the history of Western European Art.

The opening displays range from Italian Old Masters, Victorian artists such as York’s Wiliam Etty, right up to modern and contemporary works by LS Lowry, David Hockney, Paul Nash, Grayson Perry and Sarah Lucas.

Our collections have been enriched with loans from national galleries and thought provoking new commissions. Susie MacMurray’s Halo, shimmers on a distant wall, barely visible at times.

It is only when you get close do you see the thousands of gold plated wire loops used to create a magical piece which alludes to the gold work in the masterpieces hung in the same gallery.

York artist Mark Hearld has spent two years delving into the vast stores of York Museums Trust choosing artefacts for his exhibition The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures. He has created new works responding to the array of art and objects on show.

The expansion of the gallery has enabled York Museums Trust to establish the new Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA).

This brings together the four significant private collections of British Studio Ceramics that collectively form the most representative public collection of British Studio Ceramics to be found in the UK, amounting to over 5,500 pieces.

For the opening of CoCA Clare Twomey created Manifest: ten thousand hours with the help of York students and many volunteers.

The installation features 10,000 slipcast ceramic bowls piled high in towering columns.

The precarious nature of the stacked works alludes both to how collections grow and the challenges this presents to collectors, and to the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master craftsman.

The work draws your eye skywards to the fantastic roof space - revealed once more.