Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery

There has been a museum in Sunderland for two hundred years. At first privately run, the museum was taken over by the Borough Council in 1846 and was the first publicly funded museum in the country to be established outside London.

Officially called Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, it combines a museum, art gallery, exhibition space and Winter Gardens. Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens in turn falls under the all-encompassing umbrella of Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums. In July 2001 the museum and art gallery benefited from redevelopment through lottery funding and the library relocated providing greater display space for both the art gallery and museum. The art gallery features paintings by L S Lowry and Victorians such as Thomas Faed and John Collier. The 20th century is represented by artists who include Len Tabner, Harry Thubron, Stephen Farthing and Norman Cornish.