Kelvingrove Museum prepare to complete redisplay of the Life Gallery

The Life Gallery at Kelvingrove Museum will close from Sunday 9th October to allow for final phase of it's redisplay!

Article Source: Glasgow Museums
Last Updated: 5 October 2016 16:21

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum’s popular Life Gallery is being redesigned to enable intriguing new specimens from the Natural History collections to be displayed. The first phase was well-received by visitors when it was unveiled in April 2016. The final phase of this exciting development for one of Scotland’s most popular attractions will require the gallery to close to the public from 5pm on Sunday 9 October until late 2016. No other galleries within Kelvingrove Museum will be closed.

The creation of the new gallery is a two-year project. Work is now underway on a number of stories that relate to animals native to Australasia, the Arctic and South America, together with a thought-provoking exhibit on conservation issues. On completion of this final phase of work people visiting Kelvingrove Museum will be able to travel on a ‘Pole to Pole’ adventure as they wander through the redisplayed Life Gallery.

New family-focused displays will allow visitors to journey through the story of flightless birds from Australasia; the incredible pilgrimage of leatherback turtles across the Pacific, the stunning scenery of the Arctic and how wildlife cleverly camouflages itself in that barren wilderness, together with exhibits on El Dorado, the Andes and the important issue of safeguarding our natural habitats to ensure all of this is protected for the future. Amongst the exciting new specimens Glasgow Museums hope to feature are a numbat, a cassowary, green and hawksbill turtles, a muskox, polar bear, ibex and others, which had been in the museum’s stores and have been specially prepared for display.

Chair of Glasgow Life, Councillor Archie Graham, said: “We took the first step in the first significant development of the Life Gallery since the museum reopened in 2006 last year and the results have been very warmly received. We are now keen to complete the redisplay and the Pole to Pole experience for visitors to Kelvingrove.

“This gallery always ranks highly on the must-see list of many of the million-plus people who visit the museum every year, so it is important we get the refresh right. We worked hard to finish the first phase of work in time for Easter and have welcomed thousands of people throughout the summer. The animals will now be taking a short holiday and be off display to enable the final exhibits to be installed.

“People still have time to wander among the animals and when the gallery closes on 9 October visitors will be able to look down from the upper galleries and watch the new exhibits being installed. We thank people for their patience and look forward to unveiling our refreshed Life Gallery and some new intriguing animals at the end of the year.”

Situated in the museum’s West Court, the Life Gallery is home to Sir Roger the Asian elephant and the Spitfire and is consistently one of the most popular areas for families and children in Kelvingrove. Earlier this year several new displays were unveiled, allowing visitors to experience life in the Serengeti, the Indo-Malay tropical forests and Antarctica, the coldest place on earth, all in an afternoon.

The new animals will join a host of others that made their debut in April when the first phase of the redisplay was revealed. A leopard, donated to the city from Glasgow Zoo and a wandering albatross, which was obtained for Glasgow Museums by the British Antarctic Survey and came via the Falklands, are already proving popular with those who’ve explored the new Life Gallery. A Pallas’s cat, donated by the former Glasgow Zoo, is another new exhibit, whose preparation was paid for by last year’s public appeal.

A public consultation highlighted that visitors wanted to know where in the world the animals on display come from, what they eat, how long they live and other ecological information. The new displays will group animals, plants and some geological and world cultures objects from the same areas of the world in distinct eco-zones, and consider that migratory species may live in multiple eco-zones. It is hoped this will give people a better understanding of what lives where and why and the relationships that exist between species, especially those which migrate, and the many barriers which prevent other animals moving from one eco-zone to another.

For more information visit www.glasgowmuseums.com.