Museum Gallery Designers
Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery

Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery contacted our museum gallery designers as they were planning a redevelopment of their city museum.

The project would consist of a complete redesign of the ground floor, consisting of an impressive entrance hall and several large galleries.

These display spaces and galleries had become tired and had lost any WOW factor to get visitors excited about their visit.

Prior to our appointment, we had been asked to describe our future vision. This we happily provided, describing how each area should unfold exciting storylines with objects displayed to engage with the visitor, creating a desire to learn and increasing the likely hood of a return visit.

Initial meetings with key members of staff took place; these members included the Director, Curators, Conservators and a member representing the City Council. It was agreed that our museum gallery designers would run a series of design workshops over the coming months to design the concept for each of the galleries.

Our design workshops use large scale models to help staff understand the limitation of the space and how best to impart information. The ground floor plan was printed with a 1- meter grid placed across it to help the museum staff understand the scale and available space.

Then each department head and the team worked with our museum gallery designers to create the displays. These were basic at first, for example, post-it notes and pieces of sponge to represent graphic panels showcases. However, these simple steps help to spark wonderful ideas and creativity that can be tried and tested in each space.

The conservators and curators loved that they were actually playing an active role in creating their own galleries. This approach was something they had never experienced before on any previous re-design.

Once each gallery was agreed each exhibition display item was added to a spreadsheet and an accurate budget was obtained from contractors.

These exciting designs were then worked up by our museum gallery designers in more detail as can be seen in the images. These designs included the addition of a new shop and essential café.

The finished model formed part of the (HLF) Heritage Lottery Funding submission, with their representatives remarking on the high quality of design approach, presentation, the accuracy of budgeting and submission.

Furthermore, the model was placed on display within the entrance hall allowing visitors and friends of the museum a glimpse of the sensational changes that were in the pipeline.