ABSTRACT
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a 100-year-old, grade A listed building described as housing ‘one of the supreme European civic collections’ by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum. By the 1990s, the building's services, infrastructure and facilities were succumbing to the passage of time and the displays and education facilities were failing to meet the needs of the Museum's increasingly diverse prospective audiences. In 1998, Glasgow City Council staff embarked upon the largest research and consultation exercise in the Museums Service's history to shape redevelopment proposals. Many large-scale museum projects fix the content, design and intellectual rationale in so-called ‘permanent’ displays and thereby act not as repositories just for old objects but for old ideas. This chapter will suggest one model of how to create museum display spaces and displays that are more accessible and responsive to visitors’ and potential audiences’ interests, needs and aspirations.
