Tullie House Museum, Carlisle’s ‘Home of Culture’, has embarked on an ambitious development programme that marks a turning point in its 130 year history.  Inspired by its founding principles as Carlisle’s centre of arts, learning and knowledge, Tullie is transforming this vital heritage and dynamic community asset into a world class destination.  This forward-thinking museum is trialling new ways of using historic collections to inspire individual and collective creativity, well-being and self-discovery.  Project Tullie’s ‘People, Place and Heritage’ approach has been designed to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to take part in and benefit from heritage and the arts.

Many of the barriers to engaging with the museum and its collections relate to the layout of the buildings and a lack of appropriate spaces for activities and volunteering.  De Matos Ryan have carried out a comprehensive reassessment of priorities, constraints and opportunities and have developed a multi-phased Futureplan vision for the museum.  The project completely restructures the visitor journey and experience within the sensitive collection of Grade 1 listed buildings.

The current Phase 2 project, maximises the potential offered by the acquisition of 5 high street terraced properties allowing the previously inner-block museum to have an explicit dynamic and engaging presence on the high street.  A new entrance building provides a clear and direct route into the museum and allowing visitors to enter the heart of the museum whilst negotiating the various level changes between the existing disparate buildings in a fully accessible manner.  This new entrance will provide level access for all and enable visitors to enter the museum centrally with direct access to the cafe, new shop, the new community rooms along the high street, as well as the new introductory gallery, ‘Carlisle Inspires’, occupying the heart of the 1990’s extension atrium building and beyond.

‘Carlisle Inspires’ gallery provides an opportunity to reflect and represent the unique collections housed in this extraordinary museum whilst showcasing the story of Cumbria and, in particular, Carlisle.  Working to a coherent design philosophy integral to the basebuild, the gallery aims to unify the modern 1990’s building in which it is housed and reflect the collection contained within the main body of the Museum.  Our brief was to create an individual, relevant and contemporary place-based gallery for visitors to be inspired by.  This new gallery reveals the significance of the city and its people, to reveal the stories it holds to a wider and more extensive audience than ever before.  Carlisle is constantly evolving, and as a result, the gallery will need to be adaptable, allowing the content to change periodically so as to remain relevant and fresh.  The exhibition gallery encompasses the overall design philosophy and ambition of the museum to ‘embrace the concepts of nature, light, organic and sustainability to create a visitor experience that is distinctive with a strong sense of identity….A museum that brings all that is good outside, inside’, in all it’s nuanced meanings and levels of interpretation.