The Box – Plymouth’s £40 million multi-disciplinary arts and heritage museum space – will open on May 16.
Originally three separate buildings, its ground-breaking design has completely transformed, extended and combined Plymouth’s former City Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library buildings and St Luke’s Church to create a cutting-edge, interactive cultural centre with 13 new galleries and exhibition spaces, a striking elevated archive, learning and research facilities, and the first public square to be built in Plymouth since 2004.
The Box will open with 12 new exhibitions showcasing contemporary art alongside Plymouth’s rich heritage, ambitious touring exhibitions alongside the city’s permanent collections, natural history alongside maritime history, interactive exhibits, giant art installations, immersive film and photography exhibits, as well as activities for children.
The Box is moving 2,177,516 objects into the building before it opens. The heaviest is a two and half tonne ship’s figurehead, King Billy. The smallest is a feather-winged beetle, the size of a full stop.
The Box’s collections tell the stories of a nation and include the UK’s most significant collection of explorer materials, the Plymouth Bomb Book, evidencing the most destructive raids of WW2 and proof that Devon invented the Cornish pasty.
The Box also holds the UK’s largest regional film and television archive (250,000 individual films), while the newest addition to its collections will be a full-scale replica of a female mammoth that has been made in Minnesota.
The Box brings together six outstanding collections, including objects from Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, archives from the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, film and photographs from the South West Film and Television Archive and South West Image Bank, furniture, texts, Old Master drawings and art from the Cottonian Collection, and incredible animal specimens from the Plymouth Natural History Collection.
This rich blend of collections will enable stories of international and local significance to be told through immersive experiences and amazing objects.
The three major exhibitions in the opening programme are:
- Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy will be the largest commemorative Mayflower exhibition in history with over 300 objects. Co-curated with the Wampanoag Native American Advisory Committee, it will turn history on its head.
- Making It: International contemporary art exhibition featuring newly commissioned works by Antony Gormley, Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes and Brazilian artist Alexandre da Cunha.
- Kehinde Wiley: A three-channel film work by Kehinde Wiley – the first digital work by this internationally renowned painter.
Nine permanent galleries will showcase The Box’s incredible collections, they include:
- Figureheads: A magnificent display of 14 monumental ships’ figureheads, collectively weighing over 20 tonnes
- 100 Journeys: Great explorers and their discoveries, from Drake to Scott and beyond
- Mammoth: Plymouth’s incredible natural history collections featuring a 1,000 pickled marine creatures and a full-size mammoth replica
- Our Art: From Reynolds to Lenkiewicz: a show case of Plymouth’s art collection
- Port Of Plymouth: A celebration of Plymouth’s naval and maritime past
- Media Lab: Interactive room featuring the UK’s largest regional film and television archive
- Cottonian Collection: Illuminated manuscripts, Old Master drawings and fine art
- Active Archive: Public access to The Box’s huge archive containing some of the city’s most fascinating documents
- Photo Album: A showcase of objects, memories and photographs from Plymouth’s past
For details visit www.theboxplymouth.com
