THE Museum has recently joined with the Ruskin School of Drawing to appoint an artist in residence. The residency will begin in the Museum in Summer 2000 and will cover a year that will include the re-establishment of the displays and the reopening of the building. Sponsorship for the post was arranged by the Ruskin School and has been secured with funds from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Southern Arts.

The artist in residence will be involved with the life of the Museum and will work in association with the curatorial staff. While it is expected that the results will be related in some way to material in the collections, the Museum has no preconceived notion of how this relationship will be constructed. The point of the residency is to offer an entirely original commentary on what the Museum is and what it does.

Six artists have been shortlisted for interview and it is hoped that the work of the artist who is appointed will be appropriate for a presentation in the future in the real or virtual spaces occupied by the Museum.