A year’s worth of visitors in six weeks for Ferens Art Gallery 9 Mar 2017

The Ferens Art Gallery reopened on 13th January at the beginning of Hull’s year as City of Culture after a £5.2m refurbishment. The gallery expected visitor numbers to increase but were overwhelmed to receive 92,000 in just over a month, compared to 11,910 visitors in the same period in 2015. Lorenzetti’s 'Christ Between Saints Paul and Peter' has been the centrepiece for the reopening and the gallery is also displaying Francis Bacon’s 'Screaming Popes' series. Curator Kirsten Simister said ‘I am continually amazed by the buzzing atmosphere.’ The city’s Maritime Museum has also seen a 600% increase in audiences this year – 66,432 visitors to the 19th February, compared with 9,475 in the previous year. Hull Daily Mail, M + H

Also: A new venue, the Humber Street Gallery, has opened as part of the regeneration of the Fruit Market area of Hull. The city council has invested £4m in the infrastructure of the area, which is now the city’s cultural quarter. M+H