New £1.6 million extension for Museum of the University of St Andrews

The Museum of the University of St Andrews will shortly close to the public as work begins to create two new exhibition galleries in summer 2018.

A spokesperson for the university said that the success of the museum, which opened in 2008, means that it is now running at capacity, with insufficient space to accommodate temporary exhibitions.

The new £1.6 million extension will provide two new galleries for temporary exhibitions, greatly increasing the University’s ability to display its own collections and to host visiting exhibitions from galleries such as the Victoria and Albert Museum. The smaller of the two spaces will allow the Museum Collections Unit to work more closely with local community groups to create exhibitions and for University academics to showcase their cutting edge research to the public.

While the major works are underway, MUSA will close from summer 2018 for around 18 months and digital resources will be launched to enable access to the collections during this period.

A new future

Emma Jane Wells, Co-Director of the Museum Collections Unit said: “We are very excited about this development, which will be the largest change that MUSA has undergone since its opening 10 years ago.

“The two new exhibition spaces will allow us to extend and improve the exhibitions on offer, allowing us to display major travelling exhibitions from national and international institutions. It will also enable us to work more closely with community groups and schools as well as with the University’s own academics and students.

“While we are closed, two of the permanent galleries will also be completely re-modelled so that when we re-open in 2019, there will be even more for our visitors to see and enjoy.”

For more on the museum, visit the website.

(images copyright University of St Andrews)