Brightly-coloured exhibition spaces and the chance to touch artefacts has given the old exhibits at the Beaney museum a new lease of life. As it reopens to the public, Chris Price got a first look after its three-year restoration.

A mummified cat gleams on its stand in a glass cabinet at the Beaney, striking in how small and tightly bound it is.

Step into the next room and dozens of historical landscape and portrait paintings leap off the sky blue walls. Canterbury’s art gallery, library and museum is back, but never as it has been seen before.

“Whatever a visitor’s interests, they will be able to find something here,” said art and exhibition manager Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz.

“The museum is quite simple but has a lot packed in. We have such a fantastic range of collections and have created something which gives you lots of different experiences but is not as daunting as the British Museum.”

The museum reopens on Wednesday, September 5, after a restoration and refurbishment which began in 2009. It has doubled in size, with its new extension allowing items to go on display which have been in store since the 1960s. It has also added room for a new library and a temperature-controlled exhibition space.

The first exhibition will be the works of sculptor Henry Moore, one of the 20th century’s foremost artists, who spent many of his formative years living in Canterbury, with many of his early life drawings set to go on display. Yet the most striking thing when you first walk into the new-and-improved Beaney is not so much what’s in it, but the space and the colours surrounding them.

“Often in galleries you get historic colours on the walls,” said Krystyna. “Heritage colours can be very heavy. We wanted the Beaney to be light and fresh and new. We wanted colours which will set the paintings off well but have a freshness and make the paintings sing.

“Some pictures have conversations with each other. As a curator you select things which complement but this is not an art history lesson. There are no long labels. Just by looking you can see for yourself interesting things in the art.”

There is definitely a change in ethos with the Beaney, where the old stereotypes about museums have gone out the window and been replaced with a hands-on approach, where children can touch some exhibits with staff.

“Traditionally museums are places where everything is behind glass, you must look and not say very much at all,” said museum development manager Martin Crowther.

“But the ethos of this building is very much about exploring, investigating and interacting with real objects and the interpreters who will be around the building.”

Walking around with Martin, it is clear he and all the other staff share a passion for what is inside this building. It was founded in 1899, from £10,000 left to Canterbury by ship’s surgeon, politician and philanthropist Dr James George Beaney, who spent most of his life as honorary surgeon at Melbourne Hospital but never forgot the city of his birth. Another £5,000 was added to the pot by Canterbury City Council so that Beaney’s institute could accommodate the city’s existing museum and library. It then existed in more or less the same state until the refurbishment began three years ago.

“I just love the Explorers and Collectors gallery because it’s got some incredible objects from all over the world,” said Martin. “The story of the objects are exciting but also the stories of the collectors, many of which are unknown. We’ve unearthed people like a folk hero of Chile, who brought back a mastodon jaw, who is a really famous early Egyptologist and one of the first female Egyptologists. We did not know she had any involvement with this museum before.”

“We are right on the High Street so people will be able to just call in,” added Krystyna. “We hope it becomes like popping in to the National Gallery in London. It will be a place for people just to come in and have a little look.”

Never to be forgotten

The mummified cat has always been one of the most popular exhibits at the Beaney.

“That is one of my favourite objects as I have used it extensively with schools,” said Martin. “I know how potent an object it is. Children who have seen that mummified cat never forget it. I have had children come back to me 10 years later who still remember it and I think it is experiences like that which bring history to life.

“Millions of cats were mummified but lots of them were destroyed in Victorian times. Many were brought back to Britain and used as fertiliser on the fields. We have all sorts of stories about cats and their mummification.”

Space for Sidney Cooper's best work

The Garden Room of the new gallery has been devoted to Canterbury-born 19th century landscape painter Thomas Sidney Cooper, whose Canterbury Sidney Cooper School of Art is still in existence as the University of Creative Arts.

“There is a joy in being able to show his work,” said Krystyna. “He is a painter who is very easy to dismiss, but showing them in that gallery gives them good space. They have been beautifully cleaned and conserved. You can look at the detail and see that Sidney Cooper was a good painter.

“My favourite is the View of Canterbury from Tonford, which looks at the city as if travelling in from Wincheap. Before the restoration, it was quite unloved. Now, having been conserved and cleaned you can see the detail is just amazing – things like a tiny image of a man and a dog in the background. You can see he is trying to rival Constable in his landscapes.”

I'll be there on a daily basis

Former children’s laureate Anthony Browne will have his work go on display as the next major exhibition after Henry Moore’s at the gallery. The author and illustrator, who lives in Canterbury, said: “I think it’s an absolutely fantastic transformation. I loved the Beaney before and had slight anxieties about what was going to happen to it, but I think it is just magnificent. I’m excited and I know I am going to come back here on a daily basis.”

Anthony trained at Leeds College of Art, the same place where Henry Moore himself was educated.

“He is a big favourite of mine for his drawings and his sculptures. Particularly his drawings. They are very underrated because often they were drawings for sculptures. But they are fantastic in their own right.”

The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge reopens to the public on Wednesday, September 5. The opening weekend will feature live music, street theatre and interactive tours. The Henry Moore exhibition will run from Saturday, September 8 until Sunday, October 28. Admission free. Call 01227 378100 or visit www.thebeaney.co.uk