An artful ending

[Visitors to the public unveiling in Parade Gardens of a new public artwork for the people of Bath celebrating 200 years of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.]

Twelve months of festivals, world-class talks, exhibitions, family fun and other activities marking celebrations for the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution’s 200th anniversary culminated this week with the unveiling of a new public artwork for the people of Bath in Parade Gardens.

This new mural celebrates 200 hundred years of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, the widely admired cultural hub in Bath’s Queen Square, and depicts its growth into the champion of sciences and arts it is today. BRLSI was founded in 1824 and its original building, opened in 1825, was located directly above the mural’s nine panels in Parade Gardens.

Commissioned by the Institution and Bath & North East Somerset Council with funding from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, the striking artwork is designed by Tanith Gould, and recounts both the story of BRLSI and Parade Gardens.

Tanith’s incredible work was selected through a design competition and was installed by the local company Freestyle. It includes images of Charles Darwin, early maps of Bath, the fire which destroyed the Lower Assembly Rooms in 1820 upon whose foundation the Institution was built, the medieval scientist Adelard who would have known Abbey Gardens (as Parade Gardens was known then) well, the demolition of the Institution building in 1932, and ends with a snowy view of the Institution at its present home in Queen Square.

These illustrations give visitors to Parade Gardens a historic insight of Bath that goes beyond the usual story of the Georgians and Romans and paints the city as a natural home to the arts and sciences.

The ceremony is the culmination of the BRLSI’s Bicentenary Finale, which comprised a special afternoon lecture on 18 January from Professor Frank James of UCL about BRLSI’s inaugural lecture on the state of science in England in 1825, and a Bicentenary Banquet for BRLSI members in the Banqueting room of Bath’s Guildhall on the morning of 21 January. The selection of the date is no coincidence since it marks 200 years to the day from BRLSI’s first public events.

The artwork was unveiled by the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Michelle O’Doherty, and Simon Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, PhD, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution’s Honorary President for the Bicentenary and a direct descendant of the Institution’s founding President, the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne. Members of the BRLSI along with representatives from the universities, Bath & North East Somerset Council, and other local cultural and heritage organisations were also in attendance.

Lord Kerry described how happy he was to have been the latest member of his line to take up association with the Institution,

“As a descendant of the Institution’s first President, the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, I am delighted to renew the 200-year-old connection between my family and the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution,”

“I am sure the 3rd Marquess would be pleased that the institution he saw come into being has reached this landmark and that his heir had been invited to preside over its Bicentenary year. I wish it every success for the next two centuries.”

Professor Ian Gadd, current Chair of the BRLSI Board, added, “We wanted to make 2024 a year to remember and we are very proud not only to be sharing the wonderful work of a local artist with the community but to be still at the centre of Bath’s cultural landscape in 2025. The panels illustrate how the Institution has been part of the city’s creative and scientific life over the past 200 years – and we are proud to have established our home within it as a leading ‘cultural hub’.”

Paul Roper, cabinet member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development at Bath & North East Somerset Council, said: “We are delighted to support the installation of this fantastic and informative artwork in the beautiful setting of Parade Gardens – the home of many hidden histories. We welcomed more than 29,000 visitors to our October half-term event in the autumn when we opened up the Colonnades as part of the Bath Central Riverside regeneration scheme. Parade Gardens is an intriguing area of our city which can only be enhanced by this creative mural telling the stories of the past. Congratulations to BRLSI on your bicentenary – we look forward to continuing our partnership to support cultural life in Bath for many decades to come.”

Over the last year, BRLSI has celebrated its very special anniversary by inviting its local community to a wealth of cultural activities put together especially for the Bicentenary. These included the Brilliant Discovery Weekend, the Brilliantly Engineered exhibition, the launch of the Academy of Imagination (BRLSI’s new programme of creative activity directed at schools and families), the relaunch of Bath Taps into Science (a much loved weekend festival of youth-based science activities), and the inception of the Bath History Festival, not to mention twelve months of world-class speakers including the likes of Max Hastings, Jonathan Dimbleby, John Gray, A. C. Grayling and Radio 4’s Justin Webb.

The fun doesn’t stop there though, and everyone at BRLSI hopes that visitors to the mural in Parade Gardens will not only come to understand the Institution’s historic presence in the city but will be encouraged to become part of its future direction.

For further details of talks and exhibitions:

http://www.brlsi.org

Further information.

1. The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is a cultural hub and educational charity based in the centre of Bath at Queen Square. The Institution runs a programme of more than 150 public lectures each year, both virtual and in-house on topics including science, philosophy, art, and literature. It is custodian of over 150,000 historic and scientific objects, ranging from photographs of Bath from the 1850s to a 4.2-billion-year-old meteorite, and 9,000 historic books and manuscripts, including a first edition of Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’. The Institution’s Jenyns Room is one of the city’s leading gallery spaces with a year-round programme of art and museum exhibitions.
2. Founded in 1824, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution’s first home was a magnificent building between the River Avon and Bath Abbey with a library, exhibition and lecture halls. The Institution’s botanical gardens were in today’s Parade Gardens. It moved to Queen Square in 1932 when Bath Corporation demolished the Institution’s building for road improvements. The Admiralty took over the Queen Square building for World War II and until 1959. Then, much of the collection returned from storage to form the Bath Geology Museum, as the council made use of the building. After some years of uncertainty, a new charity was established in 1992 and, thanks to the enthusiasm of its volunteers, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution began to thrive again and has vigorously survived celebrating its 200th anniversary.
3. The Earl of Kerry, PhD is an author and business owner. He was educated at Eton College and at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded an MA in Archaeology. He has an MBA from Ashridge Business School, an MSc in Rural Land and Business Management from the University of Reading and a PhD in History from the University of East Anglia. He lives at Bowood in Wiltshire.
4. Professor Ian Gadd is the Chair of the Board of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. He is a Professor of English Literature at Bath Spa University where he also leads on many of the university’s international collaborations and projects. He teaches literature of the 16th-, 17th-, and 18th centuries, and has a particular research interest in the history of printing, publishing, and reading. He was appointed to Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution’s Board in 2019 and elected Chair in October 2021.