Southampton City Art Gallery Refurbishment Enters Final Phase

30 Jul 2025

We are excited to be moving into the final stages of the Gallery’s refurbishment with internal restoration and decoration of the Main Hall’s vaulted ceiling well underway. This includes the re-instatement of the iconic stripes of the artwork ‘With the Arcades’, installed by Daniel Buren in 1994, which are a celebrated feature. The Main Hall’s elegant crescent-shaped windows have been removed for restoration and are being reinstated over the summer with the addition of double-glazed heritage glass.

The work to replace the West Wing roof is now complete with new insulation, asphalting, and skylight glazing. The new Air Handling Units to control the gallery environment were craned onto the roof in July, with new ductwork to be installed in August and September followed by commissioning in Autumn. The huge scaffold shrouding the West Wing will be dismantled in phases as the roofwork nears completion. The Gallery remains on track to reopen in Spring 2026. Details of our exciting reopening programme will be announced in Autumn!

Meanwhile, there are still opportunities to see our specially curated sculpture exhibition in the newly refurbished west wing galleries which remains on display over the summer and autumn. Book a guided tour here: Book your visit – Sculpture Exhibition – Southampton City Art Gallery

In addition, we are continuing to digitise works on paper in the collection thanks to funding awarded by Arts Council England through its Unlocking Collections campaign. We have already digitised hundreds of works, which are being made available on Art UK: Southampton City Art Gallery | Art UK. Be sure to follow the Gallery’s social media channels to see the latest works to be digitised, and to keep up to date on all the latest news and developments regarding the refurbishment.

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