Plymouth's cultural attraction The Box reopens after lockdown
The Box first opened its doors to visitors in September and has welcomed more than 30,000 visitors inside so far
The largest arts and heritage museum to open in the UK in 2020, The Box in Plymouth, has reopened to the public, following a six-month closure due to COVID-19.
The Box first opened its doors to visitors at its delayed public launch on 29 September 2020. It has so far welcomed more than 30,000 visitors, despite being open for a total of just nine weeks.
It reopened on Tuesday (18 May).
The Box's 2021 reopening programme includes Wampum: Stories From The Shells Of Native America, a new exhibition centring on a wampum belt created for The Box by 100 Wampanoag craftspeople of Massachusetts.
Acquired as part of The Box's permanent collection, the new belt will be displayed alongside seven historic wampum belts on loan from the British Museum and Saffron Walden. Wampum belts use shells to tell stories of communities and culture. The exhibition will explore the history, art and culture of the Native Americans who met the passengers of the Mayflower and ensured their survival.
The Box's flagship exhibition Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy returns with a large collection of new artefacts from across the globe including the Second Peirce Patent from Pilgrim Hall Museum. The oldest existing state document of New England and it gave the Mayflower passengers English permission to settle in America. Signed in 1621, this document will be coming to Plymouth for the first time in 400 years.
Outside of London, The Box holds the UK's single largest collection of paintings by the Plymouth-born 18th-century artist Sir Joshua Reynolds.
New for 2021, The Box will be displaying the Port Elliot Collection, a collection of rarely seen paintings by the leading portrait painters of the 18th Century including Plymouth-born Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney and Thomas Lawrence. The works represent an unusually good group of family portraits, commissioned by the St German family for the Port Elliot Estate between 1740 - 1780.
Two further historic buildings and visitor attractions are part of The Box family. These are Plymouth's famous striped red and white lighthouse Smeaton's Tower and Elizabethan House - one of the few remaining buildings from this era in Plymouth.
An exceptional example of an Elizabethan boarding house, the Grade II Listed Elizabethan House has been undergoing a six-year restoration and has not been open to the public since 2015. Visitors will be taken on an immersive, multi-sensory journey through Plymouth's history by the house and the people who lived there between 1599 and 1926 when the house was saved for the nation. Elizabethan House's planned public opening is in July 2021, two months after The Box reopens.
Smeaton's Tower Lighthouse will open to visitors once social distancing measures are lifted by the UK Government.
Contemporary art is at the heart of The Box's cultural offering and new for 2021 will be a major international contemporary art exhibition opening on 25 September.
Safe social distancing measures will be in place at all of The Box's buildings, with visitors being asked to book tickets in advance until Government advice changes. All exhibitions are free of charge to visit except for 'Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy' which is £5 (free to Plymouth residents and under 18s).
The Box is a significant part of Plymouth's 'Resurgam' programme, as one of the transformational projects that will symbolise recovery and set the direction for positive change in the local economy and life in the city as it emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic. Plymouth City Council has already distributed over £42million to support over 3500 city businesses since the start of the pandemic.
Paul Brookes, Interim CEO of The Box said: "We're thrilled that we've been able to move the dates of our exhibition programme without making any fundamental changes to our vision and with a reduced visitor capacity on site for at least the first few weeks, visitors can enjoy an amazing, almost private-view level experience."