Trying to list all the attractions at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery makes you sound like a carnival showman. Egyptian and Ancient Assyrian artefacts! Diamonds and fossils! Alfred the stuffed gorilla! Contemporary ceramics and glassware! Not to mention the balcony gallery and an art collection ranging from Pissarro to the Old Dutch and Italian Masters. Stepping into the high atrium, and seeing the Bristol Boxkite suspended above your head in flight, there’s a feeling of childish excitement. Think the Natural History Museum, but with added Victorian and Edwardian paintings. Changing shows are just as bogglingly miscellaneous as the permanent collection.
Bristol’s art scene may be best known for producing Banksy, but there’s a whole lot more to this place than that. All over the city, you’ll find galleries big and small that showcase local, national and international names (plus all sorts of eye-popping graffiti that give the anonymous tagger a run for his money).
Whether it’s a landmark landscape by an old master or something more à la mode, this city offers just about everything you might be after. From massive fine art museums to some cosier (and much edgier) exhibition spaces, you could probably pack most of the best art galleries in Bristol into just one weekend trip. Ready, set, go!
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