The Holburne Museum, Bath is a place of exceptional vigour, beauty and invention. Our wonderful building houses an art collection of remarkable quality and beguiling charm and sits in an astonishing site within one of England’s favourite city. Our award-winning education team and exhibitions attract and engage thousands of visitors, students and children and have reputations for imagination and excellence on which we continue to build. We are now at one of the most exciting moments in our history. We are closed for the restoration of our eighteenth-century home and the construction of a spectacular modern extension, designed by Eric Parry Architects. The development will transform what we can do: creating the space for major exhibitions and doubling our capacity for teaching for about 16,500 young people and adults. New galleries will reveal our collection in all its glory bringing over 60% of the collection out of long-term storage, and a garden-café will open onto the park in which the Museum sits. The extension’s finely crafted ceramic and glass façade will reflect the light and the landscape creating a pavilion which appears to float enticingly within the grounds. The future towards which we are now working is one in which the Holburne will, at last, be financially secure. We have raised an Endowment of around £3m, which is as important as the raising of the building itself and is the basis of our long-term financial stability. The renewed Holburne will attract more visitors and generate more income. The new space and flexibility will enable us to put on more and exhibitions and events and to be open seven days a week, twelve months a year. The shop and the café will be much bigger than the previous ones. Our beautiful rooms, restored to their former glory, will be an outstanding venue for entertaining with all the necessary practical facilities. Despite this activity and the government grant we receive as a University Museum an Endowment Fund will provide our an essential revenue stream, supporting every area of the Museum’s activity. The Heritage Lottery Fund’s grant of £4.6m towards this development demonstrates the trust they have in our ambition. They are not alone. In total we have raised £8.2m for the development project leaving £2.65m to raised before we re-open in spring 2011. We have already received substantial support from major donors, including the Linbury Trust, Monument Trust, Brownsword Charitable Foundation and many more. No one is underestimating the scale of the task we have set ourselves. It is the rewards that success will bring that make us both determined in pursuing it and positive about achieving it. With construction now over half way through we are within touching distance of a future in which the Holburne is a confident and adventurous museum and an exhibition venue of national standing, welcoming and inspiring visitors from the city for which it was founded and well beyond its boundaries. Please support us in the most generous way you can. Help us make the Holburne the museum it can be.