New Robert Burns Birthplace Museum on track

Aug 6 2010 by Yonnie McInnes, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

THE ROBERT Burns Birthplace Museum is on track to open its doors for the first time in late September.

However the museum, being built next to the Tam O’Shanter Experience in Alloway, won’t be fully operational until November, but there will be a staggered opening of the new facility.

The Tam O’Shanter Experience will close on Monday, September 6, with demolition beginning on September 13.

It is only then the new car park site of the RBBM can be completed and fully landscaped.

Nat Edwards, director of the new RBBM, said that Ayrshire residents and visitors can begin using the new museum’s cafeteria and shop area while the finishing touches to the displays and exhibition areas are being completed.

The £21m museum is the largest, most ambitious project undertaken by the National Trust for Scotland and is supported by the Scottish Government, Heritage Lottery Fund, Scottish Enterprise, and South Ayrshire Council.

“We are on time, on budget, and can’t wait to open this magnificent museum,” said Nat during an exclusive tour of the facility last week to let Ayrshire Post readers see the progress of the building, which is now in the fitting-out stages.

“We will now have the luxury of two temperature controlled storage areas to house over 5000 items relating to Burns, from pieces of furniture, to manuscripts, and even his waistcoat buttons.

“Around 10 per cent of our collection will be on display at any one time and exhibits will regularly rotate and change.”

He added: “Our main exhibition area is around 500 square metres, has special non-reflective marmoleum flooring and matt painted walls. That’s compared to only 120 square metres in the existing museum.

“The new exhibition area is climate controlled and naturally ventilated. Five huge tubes, buried 80 metres into the ground outside the building, draw in ground source heating which then passes through heat exchange units that warms our water systems and gives us underfloor heating – there are no radiators to clutter this building, which is designed to be as ecologically sustainable as possible.

“There are lighting tracks throughout the exhibition hall which also house projectors, speakers, and CCTV cameras that are up and out of the way of the exhibits.”

Mr Edwards explained that the main exhibition area will be used as a temporary gallery which will allow more flexibility.

He went on: “For instance, we can pick a story and tell it in more depth – the Men Behaving Badly side of Burns, for example.

“It will also be used for visiting, or special displays.

“The first exhibition will be a superb series of paintings and drawings of Robert Burns by Peter Howson, an internationally famous artist who lives in Ayrshire and was educated at Prestwick Academy.

“Visitors entering will pass by a series of letters coming out of the ground with a bronze crow picking at them.

“This leads to the stone clad walls of the museum which have Scots phrases carved into the stone just outside the glass, revolving entrance doors and the ticket hall with its slate floor.

“The cafeteria/restaurant runs nearly the whole length of the back of the museum and will also have outside tables and chairs sheltered by a large ‘overhang’ of the building.”

And he explained: “The education room is at the far end of this area and is a very light and airy space with a large section of glass roof.

“The cafeteria looks out onto the gardens, which will also have art installations in it by Graham Fagan – who specialises in interactive art installations – and Liz Rowley, stained glass artist.

“There will also be a sundial commissioned from Tim Chalk with a figure of Burns as the central Gnomon casting the shadow.

“This museum is very much for the people of Ayrshire as well as what we hope will become a global attraction.”