Introduction to Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery

 This is a lovely museum based in Truro.  Entrance to the museum is £10 but includes an annual pass.  The museum used to be a bank and it's a grand building.  The first room you enter is double height with a gallery round the first floor.  At the far end of the room is a grand staircase which splits to the left and right part way up.  

This first room covers Cornwall, it's history and identity.  To the left is the Minerals Gallery and to the right is the Nature Gallery.  These three galleries have recently refurbished and look great.  The collections in these three are permanent.

Upstairs, the gallery is used to display art and this is also a permanent exhibition featuring a rotation of art held by the museum.  There is a further permanent exhibition upstairs which looks at ancient civilizations and includes the mummified remains of an Egyptian priest.  Not sure how I feel about human remains, but it's a fascinating exhibition covering Greece, Roman and Egyptian civilizations.

The remaining rooms upstairs feature temporary exhibitions.

The museum frequently hosts groups of school children, but even if you are there when they come through, they seem to spend much of their time not in the public galleries.  The museum also hosts toddler sessions and it was honestly pretty cute seeing them engage with the different activities, though I did manage to mostly be elsewhere.  The museum was generally peaceful and the curators friendly and knowledgeable.

There are also frequent other events, for instance at he moment they are running a murder mystery event.  You can buy a murder book for £2 and follow the trail of clues around the museum.  This meant that there were occasional additional items added to support the event.  I enjoyed the collection of buttons, which are very rarely on display.  The Museum also hosts parties, quiz nights, workshops, talks, film screenings as well as events for children such as a Santa's grotto.  

The museum is also used to host various community groups and activities, such as a creative wellbeing cafe; the Monday Museum club which supports those with dementia and memory loss; a sketch club and a group supporting those living with pain.

The displays in the museum represent only 6 or 7% of the total items held by the museum.  These things are culturally important for Cornwall and should be preserved as a collection with public access.  This museum deserves support for all the great things it does, without receiving regular public funding.

There is  an adjacent art cafe as well as Truro Arts, a great shop selling a wide range of art supplies, which are operated independently.  The cafe includes outdoor seating and great cakes...

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