Falmouth Art Gallery occupies the upper floor of the Municipal Buildings on The Moor, above the town library, and it is free.
It holds one of the leading art collections in Cornwall and the south-west, which is a startling thing to find up a flight of stairs over a public library in a town of twenty-two thousand people.
The range is unusually wide for a small municipal gallery, and it is the range rather than any single work that makes it worth an hour.
Old masters and major Victorian artists — the founding bequest came from the Fox family, the Quaker shipping agents who also made Trebah and Glendurgan, and it set the tone.
British and French Impressionists.
Surrealists, including work with strong Cornish connections.
Maritime painting, which given Falmouth is inevitable and is done well.
Children’s book illustration — a genuine strength, with original artwork, and the reason the gallery works better with children than most.
Contemporary painting and printmaking, with a changing exhibition programme.
The gallery holds a collection of automata — mechanical moving sculptures — and they are the thing visitors remember.
They are operated by button, they are frequently funny, and they occupy the odd territory between engineering, sculpture and toy. For children they turn a gallery visit from an endurance test into something they will ask to repeat, and for adults they are considerably more interesting than that description suggests.
The consistent report is that the hang and the labelling are what lift the place: the arrangements are thought through and the explanatory notes are clear and useful rather than jargon-laden, so that people who would not normally spend an hour in an art gallery do.
The staff are described as knowledgeable and welcoming, and the space is bright.
Free entry.
Time: forty-five minutes to an hour.
Location: Municipal Buildings, The Moor, in the centre of Falmouth — the open square at the top of the town, five minutes from the harbour and immediately below the Jacob’s Ladder steps.
Access: the gallery is on the upper floor; there is a lift.
Opening: typically Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays and bank holidays — check before travelling, and note that hours can be shorter in winter.
Facilities: shop; toilets in the building. There is no café, but The Moor is surrounded by them.
Jacob’s Ladder — 111 steps rising from The Moor to Jacob’s Ladder Inn at the top, built in 1840 by a local builder to link his properties. The view from the top is worth the climb.
Kimberley Park is five minutes away.
The main street runs east from The Moor down towards the harbour.
The National Maritime Museum Cornwall is ten minutes’ walk at Discovery Quay.
Yes.
On the upper floor of the Municipal Buildings on The Moor, above the public library, in the centre of town.
A collection of mechanical moving sculptures, operated by button — the gallery’s most popular holding, particularly with children.
Forty-five minutes to an hour.
Yes — the gallery is upstairs but there is a lift.