£2.5 million HLF grant for gallery.
It was announced today that the award-winning national art museum Compton Verney has received £2.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the Compton Verney Landscape Restoration Project. The project aims to preserve, restore and celebrate an outstanding ‘Capability’ Brown park, which includes a rare, Brown-designed and Grade I-listed Chapel.
The project seeks to restore this outstanding landscape and enliven it with eyecatchers and activities which highlight the site’s history of innovative thinking, art, architectural change and ecological diversity. The project will
· restore the ‘Capability’ Brown Chapel of 1776-9 as a venue for music and events
· build a new Visitor Welcome Centre to provide materials about the site’s landscape, history and ecology as well as much-needed visitor facilities
· expand learning, engagement and volunteering opportunities
· secure and develop the biodiversity of the parkland and recreate original Georgian pathways so visitors can view forest, wetland and meadow habitats while enjoying Brown’s original sightlines
· create two visionary eyecatchers, a footbridge and a wetland boardwalk in the landscape, drawing attention to the history of the site in refreshing new ways and enabling a circular walk of the park
· use Brown’s landscape as a platform to bring together a range of interests – art, architecture, landscape design, health and wellbeing, music, history, and ecology – which will enable us engage with new audiences in totally new ways
Dr Steven Parissien, Director of Compton Verney, said: “We’re delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has given us this support. Compton Verney has enriched the regional cultural landscape for the past ten years, and this grant will enable us to fully exploit and harness the astonishing potential of our historic context, thus benefiting both the local community and visitors from further afield.”
Reyahn King, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands said: “This project will restore the appearance and enhance our appreciation of Capability Brown’s landscape. It will also help to conserve the rich biodiversity to be found in the grounds of this magnificent mansion.”