The Royal Armouries has announced two significant funding awards from the Wolfson Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation towards the installation of a Special Exhibitions Gallery at its Museum in Hunslet. The Gallery is the first element of the wider Armouries 700 plan, which, at 700 years since the founding of the Armouries collection, is an ambitious programme of redevelopment and renewal of the museum experience.
The Special Exhibitions Gallery will be housed on the fourth floor of the Leeds Museum and will host blockbuster exhibitions, allowing an additional 100k visitors per year to experience historical stories brought to life by curatorial teams from across the world working in partnership with the RA’s own curators.
The funding announced today will contribute £250k in total to the new exhibition space, with £100k and £150k grants from the Wolfson Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation respectively. The gallery represents a central plank in the Royal Armouries strategy to widen access to its collection and diversify audiences, with a focus on exhibitions with popular themes which can engage a wide range of people. An accompanying events and education programme will allow for deeper engagement for visitors, from schools and further education students to local communities.
The first exhibition in the new Gallery, Gladiators- Heroes of the Colosseum, will open to the public in June 2025. The only international travelling exhibition developed in collaboration with the Colosseum in Rome, Gladiators is being brought to the UK for the first time by the Royal Armouries in partnership with exhibition company Expona and production company Conteporanea Progetti. Through the display of life-size reconstructions, interactive exhibits, multimedia devices and immersive environments the life of the Heroes of the Arena will bring visitors back to ancient Rome.
Nat Edwards, Director General and Master of the Royal Armouries said:
“We are delighted to announce these significant funding grants from the Wolfson Foundation and Garfield Weston towards the establishment of our new Special Exhibitions Gallery. The Gallery will allow us to stage large-scale exhibitions which bring to life the human stories behind the arms, armour and conflict of the past and help us consider what this means for us now.”
This post is based on a press release issued by the Royal Armouries
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