The rise and fall of the municipal art gallery movement? The public and private dimensions of local civic art

Abstract

By 1914 most Lancashire towns, including many small towns, maintained an art gallery at municipal expense. The origins and practical purpose of these galleries were more diverse than one might imagine. Yet, by 1914, the Lancashire art world faced something of a crisis. The generation of great Lancastrian patrons seemed to be receding. Modern revisionist thinking viewed many of Lancashire’s Victorian public art collections as outdated. The grand galleries of the nineteenth century were expensive to maintain and often poorly attended. This final chapter examines the reasons for this crisis and the way some innovative thinkers attempted to respond.