Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

Mivan successfully completed the fit out of the new museum and art galleries within the fully refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The 120-year-old listed building was restored to its former glory and now has the capacity to welcome over 1 million visitors each year to explore its paintings, archaeology, anthropology, armaments, history and design. The museum has 22 galleries, housing a range of exhibits, including Renaissance art, taxidermy and artifacts from ancient Egypt.

The £3.5million project took 3 years to complete and is now home to over 8,000 artefacts including a priceless art collection featuring pieces by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Whistler and ‘Glasgow Boys and Girls’ such as Melville and Margaret MacDonald.

The feature artefact is undoubtedly a hanging display in the Centre Hall featuring a preserved Spitfire Mark 21 which served from 1947-1949 with 602 Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

Mivan was responsible for the coordination of a range of specialist packages and worked closely with Glasgow City Council and London-based museum design company Event Communications to ensure that each element of the work was completed to the highest standard.

Mivan utilised its 110,000 sq ft specialist joinery and architectural metalwork factory to design, manufacture and install a fully configurable modular display system that was used throughout the museum space. The modular plinths were made in a variety of sizes and heights providing virtually limitless options for the layout of the artefacts on display. This system can be easily configured by the museum staff and allows the space to be used for museums displays or to be completely removed for corporate and community events.

Mivan’s design team worked seamlessly with the showcase manufacturer coordinating the exact sizes of mid floor and totem plinths to be manufactured. All of the cases had to be museum grade with humidity, temperature and lighting controls. The project team also liaised with the specialist mount maker to ensure accurate layout of the items to be displayed within the showcases.

The project also had a substantial graphics and wayfinding package that again required close collaboration between Mivan and the company responsible for printing and applying the vinyl graphics and wallpaper throughout.

Mivan also designed and manufactured the powder coated aluminium AV housings for the numerous touchscreen and audio points throughout the museum.