GLASGOW'S BURRELL COLLECTION: EXPERIENCES FROM TWENTY YEARS OF A NEW MUSEUM

Abstract

In 1983, the purpose-built museum to house the Burrell Collection was opened to the public. The collection, which comprises more than 8000 items, had been given to the City of Glasgow by Sir William Burrell, a wealthy shipping magnate. Almost 30 years elapsed before the conditions of the gift, including the need to provide a pollution-free environment for display of mediaeval tapestries and carpets, could be met. This paper focuses on some of the issues concerning the museum environment, including atmospheric pollution, which affected decision-making prior to construction of the museum, and lessons which have been learned in running the museum since its opening. Successes and failures are reviewed 20 years on, in particular the measures necessary to deal with high light levels in a predominantly glass building with many day-lit galleries. A notably successful feature of the building is the ability of the surrounding woodland to reduce light levels in the gallery adjacent to the northern wall of the museum, which is constructed predominantly of glass. However, the UV-screening capacity of film applied to the southfacing glazing has been lost after two decades. Although methods adopted to incorporate mediaeval stonework into the structure of the new building have performed well, the surface disaggregation of a vulnerable limestone arch remains a problem.