2023-09-07 13:38:00
The reopening of the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics has been confirmed for the end of January 2024, 30 months following the terrible floods that ravaged it. The renovation works are still in progress.
The aldermen of Culture, Jean-François Chefneux (New Verviers), and Finance, the current acting mayor Alexandre Loffet (PS), also announced good news for municipal finances, this Thursday during a conference of press: the restoration work of the museum in rue Renier and the preservation of its rich collections will have cost the City of Verviers nothing.
The total investment for the works for the reopening amounts to some €450,000. Part of this sum is covered by insurance (€173,000). For the rest, if the City of Verviers had provided for a financial envelope, this will not be necessary. Indeed, she has just learned that all the amounts requested from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation have been granted to her, as well as for the work at the Ensival library.
Reduced visiting space
As already announced, it will not be the entire museum created from the collections of Jean-Simon Renier which will be accessible to the public. The rooms on the first floor will serve as a reserve. Previously, the collections of the reserves were stored in the cellars, which were flooded, and which will be redeveloped into educational and conference spaces.
Only the ground floor can be visited, in this “museum in transition”, with a view to the opening of the future Biolley museum, hoped for 2028.
“There will be a whole new scenography, with a mix of works from the two museums (Editor’s note: also from that of Archeology and Folklore, rue des Raines, which will not reopen). We will see as well paintings as well as ceramics, engravings, etc.”, explains the director of the municipal museums of Verviers, Caroline Henry.
This selection of a small part of the Verviers museum collections will be modified regularly and there will be thematic exhibitions. This will serve “to experiment with what we can do in Biolley”, underlines the alderman of Culture.
As a reminder, when the future “grand museum” in the former Biolley hotel will be open, place Sommeleville, that of rue Renier will close its doors to visitors and will only serve as a reserve (storage place) for unexposed collections.
Extended hours
The museum will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ©EdA Philippe Labeye
If access to the collections will be reduced, the opening hours of the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics will be extended by 20%. Thus, previously, it was never in the morning. But this will be the case from January 2024, with a uniform schedule: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday.
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