York Art Gallery: Progress on Site April 2015 – Lorna Sergeant
Spring is well and truly here and work on site is springing forward with great speed!
The physical changes to our new building are really beginning to show. New spaces are developing and the expansion into the secret gallery space is amazing. We are also on the threshold of creating the new south gallery extension, it is really exciting!
South Gallery Roof
The South gallery roof has literally been raised to make way for the new South gallery extension that will feature more of our ceramics collection including a rainbow wall of pots and the Anthony Shaw collection.
Main Gallery
The main gallery is really taking shape the mezzanine floor is now in creating the 1st CoCa gallery above.
Mezzanine Gallery: CoCA
The web of scaffold hides the original windows what will be the first gallery space of CoCa – The Centre of Ceramic Art.
Façade Features
One of my favourite parts of the redevelopment is having the opportunity to go up on the scaffold with the stone masons and Simpsons and look at the progress of the restoration works. It is such a rare and great opportunity to get up close to the façade of the building.
Crumbling Stone
The façade was completed in 1878 -79 in sandstone, without the statuary, relief carvings and additional decorative features the architect had initially planned. As you can see from these pictures some of the original stonework was in poor repair this was due to the stone literally being sand blasted away by over 100 years of wind and rain. The current stone masons have replaced the stonework just in the nick of time!
Tiled panels
In 1880 two mosaics were purchased showing “Leonardo da Vinci expiring in the arms of Francis I” and “Michelangelo showing his Moses”. These are the two mosaics currently decorating the building, this one pictured is of Leonardo.
A detail below from “Leonardo da Vinci expiring in the arms of Francis I”
We hope to achieve a programme of restoration for the tile panels with a view to protect them for the future.
We still have a way to go and a huge amount to complete but I am sure you will agree we’ve set the pace and we are really forging on.
