The bid by Glasgow to raise £15m of the total £66m cost of the revamp of Glasgow's Burrell Collection has recorded a boost.
A donation from the W M Mann Foundation of £100,000 has taken the funds raised so far from trusts and private individuals to £2m, to add to the £27m pledged by Glasgow City Council.
The £2m raised includes support from more than 100 individual funders.
Work is beginning on the revamp, which will mean the Burrell Collection in the south side of Glasgow will stay closed until 2020.
Glasgow City Council has agreed to provide up to 50% of the project costs and approved funding of £27.3m for the project at a meeting of its Executive Committee on 16 February.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has pledged support of £15m for the project and the UK Government committed £5m to the project in November 2015.
Bruce Mann, from The W M Mann Foundation said: "We know how much people in Glasgow love visiting their museums.
"I regularly visited with my father and I now enjoy going with my own children.
"Sir William’s generosity in leaving his collection to the city was great.
"The W M Mann Foundation is pleased to help ensure his gift can be enjoyed for generations to come.”
The foundation has handed out around £2.5m in charitable grants since it was established in 1988 by Bill Mann.
Councillor Archie Graham, chair of Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums and galleries, said: “We’re thrilled that The W M Mann Foundation and indeed many other generous donors share in our desire to create an outstanding home for Sir William’s great legacy.
"At this early stage of the project, to receive so much support, is testament to the ambition and quality of our proposals for the Burrell Collection. We are grateful to The W M Mann Foundation."
Work is required to revamp the museum, built to house the collection of art and artefacts gifted to the city in 1944 by Sir William Burrell, as it is dilapidated, with a leaky roof and other issues.
The Burrell Collection closed its doors to the public in October 2016 to allow for preparatory works and decant of the collection ahead of major construction works.
Sir Angus Grossart, Chair of Burrell Renaissance, said: “We are encouraged by the support from The W M Mann Foundation and others who have committed so generously to the Burrell Collection.
"I hope this will be an example and encouragement to others to help us unlock the great, international potential of Sir William’s incredible legacy, so that it can take its place as one of the world’s finest, personal collections."
During closure, an international tour will showcase treasures from the collection, details of which have yet to be announced.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel