News: Art gallery celebrates entrepreneur's donation

Rotherham’s Art Gallery is celebrating the 100th anniversary of an important donation this year, which saw the foundations of the gallery’s vast and important artistic collection. Each year the curators of the award-nominated museums service produce an exhibition of artwork from their extensive collection, giving the public the opportunity to see some of the historic treasures they care for on the borough’s behalf. This year, the exhibition marks the centenary of a fascinating collection of paintings, donated in 1908 by entrepreneur Edward Nightingale. Nightingale (1829-1913) was an important local businessman with a love of art who had been involved with Rotherham’s Clifton Park Museum from its very beginning. When the museum first opened to the public in 1893, Nightingale was one of the first people to loan pieces of his collection of paintings for display. In 1908 he decided to donate 69 of his paintings to the museum “to form the nucleus of a really good and instructive series of art productions, which a town of such importance as Rotherham should possess”. Unfortunately, he died just five years after this donation. However, even in death the museum was close to his heart and in his will he left a further 12 paintings to the museum, bringing his total gift to 81. The Nightingale Exhibition is free to view and will be running from now until January in the Art Gallery, located in the Central Library and Arts Centre on Walker Place.

Rotherham Art Gallery website
Rotherham