IT has taken nearly six years and cost almost £69million but now the world-renowned Burrell Collection refurbishment has finally been unveiled.
While it is yet to open its doors to the public, The Herald was given a first look round at what visitors can expect when they step inside the revamped building following the extensive makeover.
Glasgow Life, the charity which runs the Burrell and culture and leisure services in Glasgow, says it will reopen to the public on Tuesday, March 29.
Sir William Burrell devoted more than 75 years of his life to amassing, along with his wife, Constance, Lady Burrell, one of the world’s greatest personal art collections, renowned for its quality of Chinese art, exquisite stained glass, intricate tapestries as well as its breadth of fine art.
COMMENT: The Burrell: Glasgow prays reopening doesn't disappoint
The A-listed home of The Burrell Collection in Pollok Country Park can now show more of the collection to visitors and give access to over a third more of the building.
On reopening, the museum’s gallery space has increased by 35%, allowing important and unique objects from the collection, which have not been seen for decades, or have never been on permanent display, to go on show.
New displays will give visitors a better understanding of the international significance of The Burrell Collection’s artworks and the people who made them and some of the people who have owned them. In total 225 displays will spread across 24 galleries.
The Burrell: Glasgow prays reopening doesn't disappoint
The displays include innovative digital elements such as video walls, interactives and hybrid systems created to help people engage with the stories behind the Collection.
A new central stairway will allow visitors access to the lower floor of The Burrell Collection for the first time, where they can watch items not on display being cared for. A new temporary exhibition space has also been created. Similarly, new galleries have been created on upper floors which will take visitors to spaces in the building they have never seen before.
Architects John McAslan + Partners, were appointed in 2016, as the refurbishment project’s architect and landscape designers.
READ MORE: Glasgow's Burrell Collection reveals public reopening date
John McAslan, executive chairman of John McAslan + Partners, said: “The Burrell Collection is one of Britain’s foremost cultural buildings of its time, an established part of Scotland’s architectural heritage, and a unique and popular cultural attraction.
"This project has transformed the building and its setting, within the context of its Grade A listing, to make it more sustainable and environmentally secure whilst retaining and enhancing its original architecture, offering additional gallery space and improving access to ensure a far greater proportion of the Collection can be enjoyed by all.
"The completed project will offer generations to come enriched experiences of this world-renowned Collection of art and artefacts from over 6,000 years of civilisation, in a museum environment that will welcome millions of visitors within its beautiful surroundings of Pollok Country Park.”
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