Salford Museum & Art Gallery celebrate impressive visitor increase

SALFORD Museum & Art Gallery is celebrating its busiest year for almost two decades.

Attendances were up by almost a quarter in 2015/16 with over 111,000 visitors through the doors of as a result of exhibitions that captured the public mood.

The venue, operated by Salford Community Leisure cites the success and increased interest, down to a number of highlights over the past year.

Exhibitions that have attracted record visitor numbers included the popular Heart & Sold exhibition, the WW1 Salford at War and Digital Salford at the Local History Library.

There’s been an increase in schools recognising the educational value of the museum, with more children visiting as part of a trip via the Learning Programme, which has wide and growing appeal.

All this, plus a busy range of school holiday programmes with craft activities, quizzes, treasure hunts, dressing up and storytelling sessions have also helped increase the popularity of the museum amongst younger visitors.

Chief Executive Steve Hassall said: “We’re going from strength to strength. The fact we’ve attracted so many visitors this year is all down to the range of quality exhibitions, events and activities we offer.

“There really is something for everyone, and we’ll be working to attract even more visitors next year.”

Salford Museum & Art Gallery was the first ‘unconditionally free’ public library in the UK when it was opened in November 1850.