New museum facilities were officially opened by Dafydd ap Tomos on 11th June 2018 - the developments include new interpretation resources on the history of the house and the local area, improving environmental conditions to enable the display of historical objects, creating better arts workshop provision and specialist art storage facilities.
The project to improve museum provision at the Plas has been realised through funding from the Welsh Government’s Museums, Archives and Libraries Division and the Friends of Plas Glyn-y-Weddw.
Two rooms formerly used as offices have now been transformed into museum spaces for the interpretation of the Plas and the local history resulting in the southern wing of the first floor being entirely dedicated to historical display and interpretation.
The former main office is now called ‘The Madryn Room’ where you can learn about the history of the house and the family who built Plas Glyn-y-weddw. The main focus is a portrait of Sir Thomas Love Duncombe Jones Parry (1830-1891), the son of Lady Love who built the house. This portrait was restored in recent years thanks to funding support from the Friends of Plas Glyn-y-weddw.
Another former office, now called the ‘Ap Tomos Room’, is devoted to the history of the house from 1939 to the present day, with special focus on the Dafydd and Gwyneth ap Tomos era, the couple who saved Plas Glyn-y-Weddw from dereliction when they purchased the Plas in 1979. In time, aspects of the local history will also be introduced, focusing on the garden, woodland, Mynydd Tir y Cwmwd, Llanbedrog village, and the heraldry which forms an important part of the internal architecture of the house.
Both rooms have been equipped with air conditioning systems and secondary glazing to enable the environmental conditions reflect the required parameters for the display of museum objects on loan from other institutions. A digital screen has also been installed in each museum room allowing visitors to browse digitised old photographs, video interviews, films and documents.
A dimmable track lighting system has been installed in the new Madryn Room, enabling us to keep the light within the required levels for the display of portraits. New LED lights have also been installed in the Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain display cabinets in the Andrews Room resulting in the visual transformation of this important collection.
On the other side of the first floor a room has been upgraded to hold children and adult art workshops; to facilitate all of the improvements, staff offices have now been relocated to the ground floor at the rear of the building to a room which was formerly used as shop storage in the back annexe.
Our art storage facilities have been significantly improved through the installation of a new museum grade mobile racking system coupled with air conditioning and secondary glazing for environmental control. Visitors are now invited to view the works of the Gallery's artists in storage (which can be up to 200 pieces) as they are easily accessible and can be viewed on the new racking system.
The funding has also enabled the upgrading of the gallery security through the installation of new high definition cameras and additional funding was secured to upgrade the intruder alarm system to the highest available specification.
