It's a whole new picture

JANET Barnes used a gardening image when she assessed the task that lay head in refurbishing York Art Gallery.

"We're not planting something new but growing what we have," said the chief executive of York Museums Trust, as the gallery awaited its £445,000 re-flowering last June.

On Friday, the gallery re-opens and, aptly, the potted plants by the fountain in Exhibition Square are in spring bloom. The gallery is looking rosier, lighter, brighter, in its new modern livery of smart, mid-grey walls and red for service areas, although even a Yorkshire budget can stretch £445,000 only so far, and the ceiling "runway" lighting must wait another day.

The first change strikes you even before entering: two gallery doors to the right bear the word 'Caf'; two to the left say 'Gallery'.

The caf, run in 50-50 partnership with Chris Hartley of Hartleys Fine Sandwiches on Lendal Bridge, has taken over the foyer space in a canny welcoming move by the Museums Trust.

"When you first come into a gallery, people who aren't used to galleries can find it quite intimidating, but they recognise cafes and feel at ease with them," says Janet.

Equally significantly, the caf seating affords views of the main ground-floor gallery through glass panelling, so tradition and more modern requirements of an art gallery are in tandem.

This gallery has undergone the most important change: its walls are now white, save for a back wall in regal purple; the wood-panelled floor is uncluttered, save for bench seating.

It is a spacious, relaxing room in which to house York Art Gallery's special exhibition programme - far better than the old space tucked away out of view upstairs - and the first show, Reflections, has all the thoroughbred class of a racehorse.

To the left of the foyer, the old shop has been replaced by The Studio, a suitably all-embracing modern name for a new facility with a dual role. Principally, it will be the art gallery's first designated learning room for educational activities for children and adult workshops, under the guidance of the assistant curator of art learning, Griselda Goldsborough.

Additionally, it will be available for evening events, corporate hire and functions. Again, you can see through the doorway into The Studio, to give a sense of art gallery being a hive of activity.

"The Studio is a robust working space with a robust environment," says Janet. "The idea is to have some noise in the gallery rather than the old image of silence. The key things with this refurbishment are accessibility and visual public engagement, so that people will see the changing programme and feel more interested in what we're doing."

New views, swish new loos too, and there is a newly positioned shop at the foyer end of the South Gallery. "We wanted to prioritise the education space so we moved the shop, but the shop is important too because people feel comfortable in shops, and they're more likely to stay and look at the displays than if it were just a gallery."

Stock is being pared down to focus on cards, the gallery's own postcards, high-quality crafts and books, not least the York Museums Trust's new publishing wing, whose first publication, Through The Needle's Eye, The Patchwork and Quilt Collection at York Castle Museum, accompanies the quilt exhibition upstairs.

The South Gallery displays the Art Gallery's new exhibition philosophy. Works here will be selected on a rolling yearly programme of themes by curator of art Caroline Worthington, each accompanied by text in English, French, German and Italian.

Her first selections, inspired by the gallery looking out towards York Minster, are Devotion and Morality, and the Minster has kindly loaned a Paten & Chalice from 1859 and a late 15th century Book Of Hours.

You note anew artworks you may have taken for granted, not least William Peckitt's magnificent stained glass from 1778.

"It used to be on the stairwell, and what we've done is taken something that was used architecturally and brought it out to show it off in a new context," says Caroline. That philosophy applies even to the removal of carpets to reveal wooden flooring, newly buffed for the reopening.

Two innovations are particularly welcome. Firstly, as part of her role as curator, Caroline will introduce "Contemporary Interventions" to the gallery walls to complement work from the gallery's collection. Flock, Susie MacMurray's new installation of black feathers, is mounted in the doorway that faces Frans Snyders's painting A Game Stall (1625-1630), which shows tables groaning under the weight of dead birds and animals.

In the second striking innovation, the gallery is introducing a floor-plan map of the galleries with its star works - "the juicy stuff", as Caroline calls it - highlighted with gold plaques. This is ideal for anyone whizzing through in a lunch-break (although it is perfectly possible to take a leisurely stroll through all the rooms in an hour).

Upstairs, the gallery's new thematic policy continues, both in the narrow "cabinet gallery" space for Looking At York, an exhibition showing the changing face of York down the years, and in the Burton Gallery, which is divided into People, Places And Stories. Again, there will be "Contemporary Interventions", such as Maud Sulter's photographic print Terpsichore (1989), and exhibits will be changed to show off the gallery's collection to the maximum.

"What we have achieved is something that is appropriate to today's expectations of a modern gallery," says Janet. "Before, children weren't properly catered for; young people weren't catered for; there was nowhere to sit down.

"This refurbishment is the first sign that we want to grow our audience; it's the first step because this building could do much more with capital investment. We want to be able to say we have developed our audience: now give us the investment for further development. We know this is not the complete job but it's the start of a new era."

Oh, and in case you were wondering in the light of the armed robbery of 1999, the security has been further upgraded.

HANGING POLICY

"THE policy is that we're celebrating our collection, basing very varied exhibitions around it," says curator of art Caroline Worthington. "There are other venues in the city geared up for modern works, and though we may need to look again at our programming, we have a duty of care to show off our own collection.

"Rather than hanging pictures chronologically, we're now doing it in themes, punctuating them with 'contemporary interventions' of modern work on loan."

Janet Barnes, of York Museums Trust, says: "It's a careful balance but what we're saying is this is a continuum between the historic and the contemporary, which is important in York, where the heritage of the city is important, but so is the activity of the day, because it adds to what I call the heap of heritage."

THE FUTURE

"WHAT the York Museums Trust is doing at the moment is working on a very big project on a ten-acre site, which includes the Museum Gardens, and would involve rear access to the Art Gallery and King's Manor," says Janet Barnes. "We're looking at creating a Green Route up to the Minster by creating new pathways and gateways."

The cost of the "St Mary's project" could be as much as £9 million. "You have to build trust with the authorities, so the refurbishment of the gallery had to come first, and then you can go back to them. You need to bed in before you do the next thing," she says.

FACT FILE

Name: York Art Gallery

Previously known as: York City Art Gallery. Name shortened when York Museums Trust took control in 2002

Opened: 1879. City council acquired it 1903

Previous history: Built as fine arts and exhibition hall. Upstairs was then used as art school

Artwork: Spans 600 years in British and European art, including 14th to 18th century Continental European paintings; works by York artist William Etty; 19th and 20th century works by L S Lowry, Paul Nash, Wilson Steer

Ceramics: Gallery houses Milner-White collection of 20th century British Studio Pottery. Exhibition of York Museums Trust's ceramics will open in September

New look: Gallery closed on June 6 for £445,000 refurbishment, including £272,000 from Heritage Lottery Fund; £85,000 for City of York Council; £10,000 from the Friends of York City Art Gallery for conservation work; plus contributions from Arts Council England, Yorkshire Renaissance, Gerrard Limited and charitable trusts

Re-opens on: Friday.

Updated: 09:05 Wednesday, March 16, 2005