Falmouth Art Gallery Cornwall

UK Museums & Art Galleries: Falmouth Art Gallery

Falmouth Art Gallery

Jake Davies

The Falmouth Art Gallery is one of the best art museums not only in Cornwall, but in the whole southwest even though the town has only about 20,000 inhabitants.

Nearby St. Ives, and to a lesser extent Newlyn, are both well known as centres of art and artists. However, Falmouth has been the home for the Falmouth School of Art, now Falmouth University, for over a century. This has brought in a continuous succession of creative people, both as staff and as students.

The distinctive logo of Falmouth Art Gallery in Cornwall

Falmouth Art Gallery has a wide range of art to suit all tastes. — Falmouth Art Gallery has a wide range of art to suit all tastes

Collection

The main impetus for the gallery's collection of more than 2,000 pieces of art however was the wealthy benefactor Alfred de Pass, a South African businessman.

His donation included many works of Old Masters, British and French Impressionists, and many Victorian artists.

Notable British artists in the collection include Frank Brangwyn, Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Charles Napier Hemy, Laura Knight, Alfred Munnings, Harry Ousey, William Strang, and John Opie.

Later benefactors have enabled the gallery to assemble a remarkable collection of prints of various types by internationally-acclaimed artists.

Falmouth Art Gallery is a surprisingly good art museum. — Falmouth Art Gallery is a surprisingly good art museum for a town of its size

Prints

There are prints by Renoir, Edvard Munch, Peter Blake, Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Matisse, Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Andy Warhol. The gallery also owns a small but important collection of photographs and works by surrealists.

Perhaps the most unique collection of the gallery however comes from the Falmouth area, with the largest publicly-owned collection of contemporary automata.

Falmouth Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Municipal Building. — Falmouth Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Municipal Building

Automata

Automata are dolls, toys, artworks, etc that have parts that move either by hidden motors or by handles operated by the viewer.

Immensely popular in many cultures during Victorian times, Falmouth has been home to a contemporary resurgence.

In 1979 a business opened up in Falmouth High Street selling arts and crafts produced by local artisans. On display were several automata made locally.

These proved so popular that a much larger collection was put on permanent display, and this in turn became so popular that the business moved to Covent Garden in London. However the skill at making the automata stayed in Falmouth and the Falmouth Art Gallery has assembled, and still commissions new automata.

The Falmouth Art Gallery has gained a reputation for its wide range of exhibitions and projects that involve a large section of the local community, from toddlers to seniors, and has won national prizes for it.

It also puts on many temporary exhibitions in collaboration with several national arts organizations.

The Moor is a plaza-like pedestrian area in the centre of Falmouth. The Post Office is the building on the left with the clock, and the Falmouth Art Gallery is in the municipal building to the right of it

Access

The Moor
Municipal Buildings
Falmouth TR11 2RT
Tel: 01326 414863
www: falmouthartgallery.com

Entry is free. The opening hours are Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm and Saturday 10 am to 2 pm. Closed on Good Friday and with limited opening times between Christmas and New Year.

Falmouth Art Gallery is close to Falmouth Prince of Wales Pier Landing and a 30-minute walk north of Pendennis Castle.

If coming by car follow the A39 into central Falmouth and turn left at the traffic lights onto Kimberley Park Road.

By bus the OTS Falmouth Shuttle Buses 366 & 367 run on a 20 minute loop and pass the gallery.

The nearest train stations are Penmere or Falmouth Town. Both are around a 30-minute walk away.

The Falmouth Hotel is a three-star accommodation nearby.

The view from Pendennis Castle down over Falmouth and its harbour. — The view from Pendennis Castle down over Falmouth and its harbour

Falmouth Access - Getting To Falmouth

For a town its size, Falmouth surprisingly has three railway stations: Falmouth Docks, close to Pendennis Castle and Gyllyngvase Beach, Falmouth Town convenient for the town centre and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, and Penmere Station. All are on the Maritime Line to Truro.

Truro is about 4 hours, 40 minutes by train direct from London Paddington or via Plymouth on the First Great Western.

A good option is to take the overnight Night Riviera Sleeper Service (www.gwr.com/plan-journey/journey-information/on-board/night-riviera-sleeper) which connects Paddington and Penzance. It makes stops at Reading, Exeter St David's, Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, St Erth and Penzance.

Exeter in Devon, located at the end of the M5 motorway, coming south from Bristol makes for a good starting point if you are driving into Cornwall. Exeter is also a good place to hire a car.

From Exeter follow the A30 dual carriageway, north of Dartmoor through Okehampton, Launceston, Bodmin and Truro.

The journey takes about two hours by car. Alternatively take the A38 south of Dartmoor and join the A30 at Bodmin, which is usually slightly quicker depending on the traffic.

Hire a car in St Ives to explore the south west of England.

Exeter International Airport, just 5 miles to the east of Exeter city near Clyst Honiton off the A30 has regular domestic flights to many destinations in the UK and Europe.

There are domestic flights to Aberdeen, Alicante, Belfast, Edinburgh, Guernsey/Jersey, the Isles of Scilly, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle.

International destinations include Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Dublin, Faro, Funchal, Geneva, Hannover, Larnaca, Nice, Palma, Paris, Malaga and Salzburg.

National Express coaches take about 8-10 hours to Falmouth from either Birmingham or London Victoria Bus Station.

Local Buses

Local buses from Falmouth include two loop buses, the #366 and #367 operated by OTS, which connect the town and coast in a 20-minute circuit.

First Bus operates buses from Falmouth to Truro which take about an hour, Falmouth to Penzance (2 hours) and Falmouth to Redruth (50 minutes).

Newquay Cornwall Airport

Newquay Cornwall Airport (NQY) is the nearest airport to Falmouth.

It has connecting flights to Bristol Airport, Cardiff, Glasgow, St Mary's Airport in the Isles of Scilly, Leeds Bradford, London Gatwick, Manchester Airport, Newcastle and international flights to Cork and Dublin in Ireland.

There are also seasonal flights to Alicante in Spain with Ryanair and Dusseldorf in Germany with Lufthansa.

Most UK flights are operated by Air Southwest. The airport offers airport parking for over 500 cars.