Beecroft Art Gallery

The Beecroft Art Gallery has recently reopened its doors after being relocated to a very large building on Victoria Avenue in Southend-on-Sea that was previously home to the Southend Library. During this large-scale gallery relocation project, the gallery was lucky enough to set aside display space for a dedicated costume gallery in order to display their collection of historic costumes. The costume gallery required a large showcase to display the costumes safely. The gallery was generously awarded £3,000 from Essex Heritage Trust towards the large showcase allowing the gallery to provide an exquisite  permanent display of changing exhibitions of  historic costume for its visitors.

Prior to the construction of this showcase, it was not possible to display costumes in the new Beecroft Art Gallery due to the fragile nature of  historic costumes and the necessity of a showcase to protect these objects from the immediate environment.

With the popularity of costume exhibitions and displays, it seemed like a fantastic opportunity for the Art Gallery to set aside an entire space for its costume collection that has both widened the audience and enhanced their reputation for putting on interesting and exciting costume exhibitions.