A National Centre for Gainsborough
This ambitious project aims to fascinate and inspire audiences to enjoy the art, life and passions of one of Britain’s foremost artists, in the special setting of his childhood home. It seeks to upgrade and expand the Grade I listed Georgian townhouse, to ensure the museum is financially sustainable and no longer at risk. The project will refurbish and redisplay the historic buildings while constructing a new three-storey wing that will create the largest gallery in Suffolk. Visitors will be able to see Gainsborough’s masterpieces, exhibitions of international appeal, contemporary art created in East Anglia and a landscape studio with panoramic views over Sudbury. A new café overlooking the beautiful 18th century garden will enhance the visitor experience, along with improved facilities, more spaces for learning, talks and concerts. Nowhere else in the world can such a wide collection of Gainsborough’s art and those he inspired be seen in a single setting. The project will maximise this great asset, transforming the museum’s ability to develop a secure future by drawing twice as many visitors, encouraging a three-fold increase in dwell time and generating more income.
Where Are We Now
Demolition is now complete and the former labour exchange seems a distant memory. We are on the brink of becoming the national and international centre we have been working so hard to achieve. This is very exciting news for Gainsborough’s House, after years of planning, work has begun in earnest. This development won’t just secure the future of Gainsborough’s House, but will also be the start of regeneration of an historic market town, the creation of a long needed centre for visual art in Suffolk and a national centre for Thomas Gainsborough. We are increasingly feeling the international reach of the project and with the collection going off to the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow later this year we look forward to welcoming masterpieces from Russia after we re-open. When we re-open we will have effectively doubled our staff and provided five apprenticeships, and be ready to deliver a nationally significant programme of exhibitions, events and displays. We will certainly have much more scope to host national and international exhibitions.
We are increasingly feeling the international reach of the project and with much of the collection having been displayed at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow in 2019, we look forward to welcoming masterpieces from Russia after we re-open.
Timescale
2019
• Building began in Autumn 2019
• We closed Gainsborough’s House to visitors on 27 October
2020
• We opened our Information Centre on the project at No.47 Gainsborough Street (next to Gainsborough’s House) on 2 March 2020 and had to close it shortly afterwards due to the national lockdown, a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
2021
• Building work continues and is due to be completed in the Autumn, followed by fit out and installation.
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) was born in Sudbury and baptised at the Independent Meeting-House in Friars Street on 14 May 1727, the fifth son and ninth child of John and Mary Gainsborough. In 1958, Gainsborough’s House Society was formed to purchase the house and establish it as a centre for Thomas Gainsborough. The Museum opened to the public in 1961 and has remained open for over 50 years. The beautiful historic garden at the heart of Gainsborough’s House is maintained by a devoted body of volunteers, who garden exclusively with plants that were available in Gainsborough’s lifetime.
Gainsborough’s House Society , Charity No. 1170048 and Company Limited by Guarantee No. 10413978
