Plans to redevelop Newtown’s art gallery have been revealed as part of an investment worth around £1million.
Oriel Davies Gallery proposes to revamp the single storey building in The Park to allow works from the national collection to go on display in Newtown alongside contemporary visual art.
The project includes a new spotlight gallery and library, refurbished café with a grab-and-go window and amphitheatre seating, as well as updating current educational rooms, offices, toilets, retail and gallery spaces.
Oriel Davies Gallery aims to get work started at the start of 2025 if the arts venue gets the green light from Powys County Council planners.
OTHER NEWS:
- Powys school explains unisex toilets move after angry response online
- Police investigate dog attack that killed sheep on Powys farmland
- Councils respond after billboard claims they have made Newtown as 'ghost town'
The public art gallery building, which welcomed 55,000 visitors last year, closed on Monday, September 9, and will reopen in the spring but in the meantime, events will continue to run at other venues in the community.
A planning application submitted by gallery director Steffan Jones-Hughes includes plans for new cladding, windows, landscaping and seating area dubbed a 'café in the trees' opposite the bus station, and replacement bin and bike store.
Oriel Davies Gallery said: “We want to make our space even more accessible, develop civic spaces, improve our retail and welcome space, learning studio, improve the toilet facilities and make it possible to open up different zones of the building at different times.
“A major part of this phase will be to increase the number of loans so that we can bring the Davies sisters’ collection back to the area and tell their story and the impact they have had.”
The gallery is a pavilion style red brick building that was designed in 1967 by architect Alex Gordon, and built using a legacy left by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, who were Wales’ foremost collectors of fine art.
The Davies Sisters, who lived in mid Wales throughout their lives including at Plas Dinam and Gregynog, were the granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam, a highly successful engineer who made a fortune in industry.
Their bequest to the National Museum of Wales included one of the first and finest groups of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in Britain including paintings by Van Gough, Cezanne, and Renoir’s iconic La Parisienne.
Beth McIntyre, museum curator and art historian, said: “Wales today has a national art collection of international importance in large due to the pioneering collecting and generosity of Margaret and Gwendoline Davies. Their passion for art has had a truly extraordinary impact on the cultural life of Wales.”
The gallery announced in August that the arts venue would be receiving “significant” Welsh Government investment, worth around £1million, through the Arts Council of Wales to improve infrastructure, security, environmental controls and replace the roof as it becomes a partner in the National Contemporary Art Gallery for Wales, with the National Museum and the National Library.
Help support trusted local news
Sign up for a digital subscription now: www.countytimes.co.uk/subscribe
As a digital subscriber you will get
- Unlimited access to the County Times website
- Advert-light access
- Reader rewards
- Full access to our app
People can share their ideas and feedback for the gallery’s developments and what is needed in Newtown through an online ‘Consultation Station Survey’ on the Oriel Davies Gallery website.
The gallery said: "On behalf of director Steffan Jones-Hughes and the team, we want to say a massive thank you to all the volunteers, artists, makers, coffeemakers, coffee drinkers, dog walkers, art lovers, gift buyers, Newtown communities and businesses for supporting the gallery.
"We’re so grateful for your support and we will be in touch as soon as our re-opening dates become clear."
Comments about planning application 24/1297/FUL can be submitted on the Powys County Council website or by sending an email to planning.representations@powys.gov.uk before a decision is made by November 5.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel