Image: James O JenkinsArt Fund appeal to buy Plinth shipACE sets museums new testBelow: The Tyntesfi eld after restoration in 2011The Art Fund and the National Maritime Museum have launched a public appeal to give Yinka Shonibare's (pictured) Fourth Plinth, Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, a permanent home at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The specially commissioned piece had been in Trafalgar Square since May 2010 and came down from view in January. There are plans to feature it outside the museum's new Sammy Ofer Wing.The work of art costs £412,000, of which the Art Fund has contributed £50,000. The rest, it is hoped, will come from the public. Those interested can donate £5 by texting 70555, calling 0844 415 4100, or going online at www.artfund.org/ship."I would very much like to see the work have a permanent home," said Yinka Shonibare. The Tyntesfi eld Orangery in Somerset has won the main accolade in the new Heritage Angels awards, voted for by members of English Heritage and readers of the Daily Telegraph, the awards' media sponsor.The Orangery had been used as a training ground for volunteer craftsmen who were to work in the great house Tyntesfi eld near Bristol, acquired by the National Trust in 2002. The awards were the brainchild of the composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber and English Heritage CEO Simon Thurley to recognise the often unsung efforts of local groups of amateurs who are determined to save vital parts of their heritage, often over decades.Awards were given in four categories, with the award for the best industrial rescue going to Pleasley Colliery in Nottinghamshire, which closed in 1983 but now, after 15 years of hard labour, has reopened. Tyntesfi eld's AngelsHogarth back in his 'box'Scotland's Portrait Gallery reopensThe UK's 1,800 accredited museums and galleries are expected to reapply for their accreditation, after new rules were set by Arts Council England since it took over responsibility for museums last October.Combining with Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, Museums Galleries Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Museums Council, ACE has launched a revised accreditation scheme."Our ambition is for more people to experience and be inspired by museums and galleries," explained ACE Chief Executive Alan Davey. William Hogarth's "little box in the country", his holiday home in Chiswick, has been restored and reopened to the public, thanks to the efforts of local volunteers. Led by museum consultant Val Bott, local enthusiasts researched the Queen Anne house and its contents in the years Hogarth lived there for the 15 years before his death in 1764. The restoration has cost £400,000, with £287,000 coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Admission is free.Before its closure in 2009, the house had been used as a gallery for prints of Hogarth's works. The home he shared with wife Jane is now full of objects owned and used by Hogarth. "Local people who came to events here told us they wanted more than serried ranks," said Val Bott. "They yearned to understand the place as a home, so we've presented the house so as to make sense of its building phases, and added some domestic details."Edinburgh's Scottish National Portrait Gallery has reopened after its £17.6m remake. First opened in 1889 in the city's New Town and designed by Robert Rowand Anderson, the gallery has been largely occupied by the collections of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. But the society is now accommodated in the Museum of Scotland, giving the portrait gallery 60 per cent more display space. It allows important pictures to be displayed for the fi rst time, such as Lely's portrait of Anne Hyde, Queen of James II (James VII of Scotland). "What we can now do is show a series of narratives which we will change, some over years and some over months," said Director James Holloway, CBE. 12 NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2012 www.nadfas.org.ukARTS NEWS

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