Cyfarthfa Castle Museum to close temporarily

Anthony Lewis – Local Democracy Reporter

There will be a temporary closure of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery to allow its stored art collections to be moved to a new off-site store.

The museum and gallery in Merthyr Tydfil will be closed for two weeks from Monday, November 6.

As well as match-funding from owners of the collection, the council and managers of the collection, Wellbeing Merthyr, the new store has been funded by the Welsh Government’s Cultural Transformation Capital grant award.

The grant aims to enable public libraries, local museums, and archive services to transform service delivery, to modernise their facilities, create more sustainable models of delivery, enable joint service working and improve the offer to people and communities, the council said.

Monitoring

Museum manager Kelly Powell said: “Whilst we’re awaiting renovation work of the castle, this move will ensure preservation of the collection for the future as well as enable the museum service to continue collecting art works significant to Merthyr Tydfil.

“All stored art will be rehoused in a much larger secure space, with full environmental monitoring and controls, and 24-hour security.

“These larger stores will also allow easier access for staff and greater accessibility to the public to view any artworks that are not currently on display, representing the first steps towards making the museum a higher quality visitor experience.

“To ensure the move goes as smoothly as possible, and everyone and everything is kept safe, we will unfortunately have to close the museum, including its tearooms, whilst the artworks are being moved to their new home.”

For health and safety and security reasons, to enable the museum team and art transportation specialists to relocate artworks of all shapes and sizes safely off-site, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery will be closed from November 6, reopening on Tuesday, November 21 at 10am.

Anyone wishing to view the stored art collection after its move will need to make an appointment by emailing [email protected] or calling 01685 727371.