National Museums Northern Ireland - History

History

The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in 1929, it moved to its present location in Stranmillis. The new building was designed by James Cumming Wynne.

In 1962, courtesy of the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, it was renamed as the Ulster Museum and was formally recognised as a national museum. A major extension constructed by McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd to designs by Francis Pym was begun in 1962 and opened in 1964. It is in the Brutalist style, praised by David Evans for the "almost barbaric power of its great cubic projections and cantilevers brooding over the conifers of the botanic gardens like a mastodon".

Since the 1940s, the Ulster Museum has built up very good collection of art by modern Irish, and particularly Ulster-based, artists.

In 1998, the Ulster Museum, which includes Armagh County Museum, merged with the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster-American Folk Park to form the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.

In July 2005, a £17m refurbishment of the museum was announced, with funding coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL, usually pronounced as 'Dee-Kal'). In October 2006 the museum closed its doors until 2009, to allow for the refurbishment work. Illustrations of historic interest will be found as nos 183 and 237 in Larmour,P. 1987. The redevelopment proposals have drawn criticism from many significant figures in the architectural community, who feel the character of the Modernist extension will be irrevocably lost. The reopening has seen the introduction of Monday closure, which has received criticism from the public and in the press.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8327142.stm) All NMNI sites are to close on Mondays. This decision is being reviewed by DCAL.