Following 18 months closure for a £4.3million refurbishment, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool welcomed the public back on 8 February 2002. Walker Art Gallery, “The National gallery of the North” of the UK, celebrates the first anniversary of its reopening.
The improved facilities at Walker Art Gallery have been a resounding success, with 222,000 visitors over the last year. This is an increase of 76% compared to the same period 1999-2000 (the last full year before the builders started work).
The range and quality of exhibitions Walker Art Gallery is now able to show in the new temporary exhibition galleries as proved popular with visitors. Over the year it has hosted historical epics, including George Romney 1734-1802: British art's forgotten genius, Turner’s Journeys of the Imagination, the Earl & the Pussycat and the current exhibition Henry VIII Revealed. More modern tastes have also been catered for with the John Moores 22 exhibition of contemporary painting, the art of Paul McCartney and the newly opened A Maverick Eye: The Photography of John Deakin.
So far the busiest months have been February 2002 with 30,904 visitors and July 2002, when 24,690 people came through the door including distinguished guests – HRH The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh who met Sir Paul McCartney in his exhibition, the Capital of Culture judges and ministers from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. However these records could well be broken later this year when Walker Art Gallery holds the first major exhibition for over thirty years of Pre-Raphaelite artist Rossetti.
WALKER ART GALLERY
William Brown Street
Liverpool
L3 8EL
Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12-5pm
