Banksy for a bit (Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery)

Member Name: blackviolets

Product:	Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery
Date:	24/06/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: banksy exhibition and other artifacts

Disadvantages: bit of a wait to get in at the moment

I'll admit that I don't go to Bristol City Museum all that much, odd really considering how close it is. It isn't that I'm not interested in what they've got to show in there, the main thing is that what is there never seems to change.

When I was at school this was the place we went to the most often when it came to day trips. For some reason we had to pay £5, yet the actual entry fee was free then and is still free now.

The outside of the building isn't all that subtle. It's got an Edwardian facade (yes I do know what that means!) and is based in Clifton. So it's only a stone throw away from the Bristol Centre.

The museum has several different sections -natural history, archaeology from different walks of life, an art gallery, an Egyptology gallery (contains real mummies!) It also contains many prehistoric and roman artifacts.

All of this however, wasn't the main reason why I happened to find myself there on Monday. You might have heard of a new exhibition, showing art by a certain chap with a hidden indentity under the name of Banksy.

There's still I think another 2 months before it finishes so you've got plenty of time to have a look. The whole of the museum has been taken over by his work including the reception desk in the centre of the building, which is now an ice cream van.

All told there are well over 100 of his designs, ranging from a lady smoking on a photo frame, well known portraits having moustaches or listening to ipods on them or spaceships flying above an island of pirates to models of fishfingers in gold fish bowls and chicken nuggets dipping their 'heads' into small ketchup pots.

On the upper levels where the original artifacts are, you can see that some of Banksys work is there as well. So not everything has been cleared away. Just meerly pushed aside for a bit.

It took me a good 25 minutes to get in as there are some people waiting outside only letting a certain amount of us in at one time. I think it would be a massive struggle to let us all in at the same time, far too many for the staff to cope with. However I'm certain that the numbers will dim down a bit at the weeks go by.

An exhibition of this size doesn't usually make its way to Bristol very often so for anybody living here I would suggest that you make the most of it. Won't last for ever.

Like I said the other works are still here and I'm sure that when all the hype has died down you'll be able to see the museum back to normal. With all the right amounts of history which you could be interested.

Even without this Banksy stuff going on, the museum is a nice place to go and see if you've got a spare day. Afterwards you could even treat yourself to a bit of shopping as it's right near Park Street.

Summary: .