A mass gathering organised by the We Are Buxton (WAB) community forum saw over 200 people assembled outside the closed Buxton Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) on Saturday 8 June (image courtesy of Explore Buxton).
WAB spokesperson Jean Ball said:
“We organised this opportunity for local people in response to a groundswell from our community looking to show how much they care. Now we are amazed and impressed at the scale of the passion demonstrated by the number of people who turned out this morning in support of Buxton Museum & Art Gallery.”
The enthusiastic crowd which included a cross section of ages and people including children and a few dogs, held “We love BMAG” banners. As well as the eight groups who make up WAB, there were representatives from Buxton Fringe, Explore Buxton, Discover Buxton, Friends of Buxton Museum, Councillors from both High Peak Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council, and more.
Among those attending was Ros Westwood MBE, the retired Derbyshire Museums Manager, who worked at Buxton Museum for 25 years. She said:
“I come here standing on the shoulders of ten previous curators who have worked tirelessly for the town to have – at the people’s request – this museum. It was very much the people who asked for it and it is the people’s collection.”
Catherine Parker Heath, Community and Conservation Archaeologist with the Peak District National Park Authority, was also keen to voice her support, saying:
“This is such an important museum for Buxton but also the National Park.”
The event follows a public statement from WAB, which is made up of eight active groups in the town, urging Derbyshire County Council to “to ensure that a suitable long term solution is swiftly secured with a view to establishing a viable single venue for the collection in Buxton”, whilst also supporting DCC efforts to establish “extensive and ongoing interim activities to ensure that the museum and gallery remain accessible to as many people as possible.”
The museum and gallery was established in 1893 in the Town Hall then moved to Peak Buildings on Terrace Road in 1928, and has hosted the prestigious annual Derbyshire Open amongst other major exhibitions. BMAG closed suddenly a year ago with DCC describing it at the time as a temporary closure following the discovery of dry rot in the building. DCC has since announced that the museum will not reopen in that venue and that the building will be sold. Over 5,000 people have signed our petition to save the museum with fears growing that the collection will be dismantled permanently and the museum itself will become a thing of the past.
A number of community representatives have now agreed to meet with Cllr Barry Lewis and Museum colleagues in July to explore how the future of Buxton Museum & Art Gallery and of Peak Buildings can realistically be resolved. At that meeting the representatives will hand over the petition, so there are still time to sign it if you have not yet done so https://www.change.org/p/save-buxton-museum-art-gallery-from-permanent-closure.
We Are Buxton Community Forum (WAB) is made up of 8 active groups: Accessible Buxton, Buxton Civic Association, Buxton Town Team, Churches Together in Buxton, Connex Community Support, Friends of Buxton Station, Transition Buxton, and Vision Buxton. Group representatives meet every couple of months to enable collaboration and with Borough & County Council colleagues a few times a year. WAB has no website, staff, or social media presence of its own, just the resources of the constituent groups.