Royal Albert Memorial Museum

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Coordinates: 50.7252° N 3.5325° W Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on Queens street, Exeter, Devon, England is the largest museum in the city.

1 History
2 Collections
3 Redevelopment
4 Funding
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Initially proposed by Sir Stafford Northcote as a practical memorial to Prince Albert, an appeal fund was launched in 1861 and the first phases of the building were completed by 1868. The Devon and Exeter Albert Memorial, as it was originally known, provided an integrated museum, art gallery, library, reading room, school of art and school of science in the manner long advocated by Prince Albert.

In 1899 York Wing was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, and at the same time the title of Royal Albert Memorial was granted.

The building has changed little since then although the city library moved out of the Museum in 1930, the school of science ultimately developed into the University of Exeter and the school of art is now the University of Plymouth's Faculty of Art & Education. The Museum then gradually expanded to fill the whole building.

[edit] Collections

Archeology, Coins and Medals, Costume and Textiles, Decorative and Applied Art, Fine Art, Natural Sciences, World Cultures, 1.5 million objects in total. Present collecting focuses largely on objects of local interest.

[edit] Redevelopment

The building is closed to the public from 1 December 2007 until 2010 for redevelopment. The Heritage Lottery Fund has contributed nearly £10million to Exeter City Council's £15million redevelopment project that will allow RAMM to grow and develop to meet 21st Century needs. ^[1] It includes a purpose-built off-site collections store, a complete redisplay of the collections, an extension and a new entrance from the gardens at the rear.^[2]

While the main museum building is closed, the museum will be running a small gallery in Exeter Central Library, as well as opening St Nicholas Priory to the public and schools.