The Museum of… Our pick of the UK’s specialist collections
Louise Gray joins the tourists who come off the main Lakeland tourist track to visit Coniston's Ruskin Museum
Where
Coniston, Cumbria, in the centre of the Lake District.
What
The museum is part of an independent charitable trust owned and managed by the village of Coniston. “The raison d’être of the museum is to celebrate the artist and polymath John Ruskin’s life and work as well as the history of the locality,” says the museum curator’sVicky Slowe.
Opened
1901, 18 months after Ruskin’s death. Its origins date back to the establishment of the Coniston Mechanics’ Institute & Literary Society in 1852 from its beginnings in the late 1820s. Ruskin, who spent his later life in Coniston, was a great supporter of the institute.
Collection
The museum tells the story of Coniston and the surrounding High Furness Fells from its geological formations to the present –“from 400m years ago to the jet age”. Ruskin, who donated his mineral collection to the institute in 1884, is the focal point and the museum has his watercolours, drawings and sketchbooks.
Sportsman Donald Campbell, who broke four of his seven world waterspeed records before he was killed in 1967 on Coniston Water racing his boat Bluebird K7, is an integral part of the museum. There is also material relating to Arthur Ransome, whose Swallows and Amazons stories were centred on Coniston Water.
Help at hand
Slowe is the only full-timer; there are three part-time front of house staff and 30 volunteers, one of whom – Bill Smith – is leading the rebuild and conservation of Bluebird.
Budget
Most income comes from admission fees (£5.25 adult, £2 child) and profits on shop sales. In 2009/10, grants came from South Lakeland District Council (£2,500) and Coniston Parish Council (£550).
Visitors
14,274 in 2009.
Highlights
Slowe likes the matchbox-sized model of a car called Bluebird given as a Christmas present by the eight-year-old Donald Campbell to his father Malcolm in 1929: it is made from a pencil stub, four drawing-pins and tin foil.
“Ruskin’s watercolour of Sunset at Herne Hill, Seen Through the Smoke of London is also wonderful,” she says.
Sticky moment
“Future financial sustainability is an issue. One of the reasons that the recovery of Bluebird K7 from Coniston Water in 2001 has been seized as a golden opportunity is to substantially increase our market share and develop new audiences,” Slowe says.
Survival tip
“If you want something, you’ve got to fight for it,” says Slowe. “We were turned down twice by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Bluebird extension project, but the reaction here was that Coniston had been part of the Campbell story for decades, and we were damned if anyone else was going to do it.”
Current projects
The Campbell family has given Bluebird to the museum; the extension housing the boat and associated material will open in 2011. The museum has raised £575,000 of the £675,000 it needs for the project.
www.ruskinmuseum.com
Coniston, Cumbria, in the centre of the Lake District.
What
The museum is part of an independent charitable trust owned and managed by the village of Coniston. “The raison d’être of the museum is to celebrate the artist and polymath John Ruskin’s life and work as well as the history of the locality,” says the museum curator’sVicky Slowe.
Opened
1901, 18 months after Ruskin’s death. Its origins date back to the establishment of the Coniston Mechanics’ Institute & Literary Society in 1852 from its beginnings in the late 1820s. Ruskin, who spent his later life in Coniston, was a great supporter of the institute.
Collection
The museum tells the story of Coniston and the surrounding High Furness Fells from its geological formations to the present –“from 400m years ago to the jet age”. Ruskin, who donated his mineral collection to the institute in 1884, is the focal point and the museum has his watercolours, drawings and sketchbooks.
Sportsman Donald Campbell, who broke four of his seven world waterspeed records before he was killed in 1967 on Coniston Water racing his boat Bluebird K7, is an integral part of the museum. There is also material relating to Arthur Ransome, whose Swallows and Amazons stories were centred on Coniston Water.
Help at hand
Slowe is the only full-timer; there are three part-time front of house staff and 30 volunteers, one of whom – Bill Smith – is leading the rebuild and conservation of Bluebird.
Budget
Most income comes from admission fees (£5.25 adult, £2 child) and profits on shop sales. In 2009/10, grants came from South Lakeland District Council (£2,500) and Coniston Parish Council (£550).
Visitors
14,274 in 2009.
Highlights
Slowe likes the matchbox-sized model of a car called Bluebird given as a Christmas present by the eight-year-old Donald Campbell to his father Malcolm in 1929: it is made from a pencil stub, four drawing-pins and tin foil.
“Ruskin’s watercolour of Sunset at Herne Hill, Seen Through the Smoke of London is also wonderful,” she says.
Sticky moment
“Future financial sustainability is an issue. One of the reasons that the recovery of Bluebird K7 from Coniston Water in 2001 has been seized as a golden opportunity is to substantially increase our market share and develop new audiences,” Slowe says.
Survival tip
“If you want something, you’ve got to fight for it,” says Slowe. “We were turned down twice by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Bluebird extension project, but the reaction here was that Coniston had been part of the Campbell story for decades, and we were damned if anyone else was going to do it.”
Current projects
The Campbell family has given Bluebird to the museum; the extension housing the boat and associated material will open in 2011. The museum has raised £575,000 of the £675,000 it needs for the project.
Links
www.ruskinmuseum.com