Harris Museum & Art Gallery

This is very pretty and well interpreted museum. Lots to keep the younger generation busy and interested. There is a good mix of local history giving visitors a real incite into Preston past. The gallery was well set out although mostly not my cup of tea but art is so subjective. The costume gallery again has a interesting selection of exhibits that serve an important eduction piece.
The library downstairs seems to be out of place to me although great for local residents to learn and borrow books in the same location it felt like the out of town visitor was left short by a floor that could be a focal point of exhibits.
The other up point is it is free to entry.
Overall a beautiful building with some lovely exhibits but not enough to get me to visit again.

This museum is so great! Firstly, it’s so amazing that so many of our museums are free. We are so lucky. And ok it’s not like the Harris Museum is full of masterpieces or anything but it’s still a great museum — lots of interesting and varied stuff to see. I really liked the ceramics and glassware display, especially all the beautiful glass bottles. There was an exhibition on how the museum preserves its costume and textiles collection which I though was a cool idea. The travelling Bruce Nauman exhibition was also really fun — I loved the neon installations and the wreath of slightly obscene hands. The fine art gallery had a really varied range up to contemporary including some poignant wartime art and some lovely works by regional artists. Finally the Preston section had a small but quite moving display on the history of Preston’s groundbreaking women and a feature on the history of Preston as the foremost cotton manufacturer and home of the famous Horrocks brand.
The building itself is very handsome and the staff are friendly too. This is a must see if you’re in town.

Nice ensemble of art and artifacts. Really impressive museum.

To begin, the building itself is very impressive. Behind the neo-​classical façade is a huge atrium running the full height of the central tower around which all the galleries are laid out. The ground floor of the atrium is home to the café which serves drinks, snacks and excellent cake. It also contains a recreation of the Foucault’s Pendulum experiment which is claimed to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.
The museum itself houses collections of china and glassware, clothing and fashion accessories, and local archaeological and historical artifacts. The art galleries are also worthy of note, containing a good selection of late victorian and early twentieth century art, supplemented by regular exhibitions of contemporary works.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the Harris also has a shop, runs activities for children, and also houses the Central Library.

The Harris is definitely something you should check out if you’re in Preston. With no admission price it really is a brilliant place to visit with some excellent exhibitions on display and not just the same thing everytime you visit. There are some permanet exhibitions on display however, which are also worth a look.
The gift shop is small but has all youre usual museum type gifts and the café is also a nice place to have a drink and a snack.
There is also a library within the building which has some good stuff such as old newspaper microfisches from as early as the nineteenth century.

It’s always worth checking what’s on at the Harris, not just the exhibitions but also for childrens activities. They run some great workshops for children of loads of ages, most of which are fun and original. The Harris also has a coffee area selling drinks and food. The permanent exhibitions are also definitely worth a good look.