IKEA building

The council plan to buy the IKEA building (Coventry Telegraph).

They seem to struggle to fill the Herbert, how would they fill the IKEA building unless they turn it into the museum of very modern furniture and mass produced art? If they could persuade the London museums to part with their hidden gems it would be interesting. Visitors could spend hours looking for the way out only to discover the thing they came to see is in another warehouse entirely.

More to the point is that it is more business rates lost to the city. To justify it they will probably say there needs to be a consolidation and close both Herbert Art Gallery & Transport Museum and put it all on one site. Alteration cost likely to be quoted at £10m but likely be more like £20m which will be recovered by selling the aforementioned buildings for £8m. Sounds illogical but that is Cov Council for you

Although not the most attractive building on the Coventry skyline, the Ikea building is now rather iconic. To transform it into some kind of arts venue would probably, on balance, make more sense than ripping it down (I honestly cannot see any national retailer taking it on after the last twelve months?!). Like Helen says, if the London museums were to part with some of their exhibits, that would certainly help such a project - and. equally, Busman is right to point out the cost implications of such a project upon the city. With Coventry University aquiring so much land around The Herbert, I fear that the 'merge into one' option might be a very convienient way of allowing the University to expand further up Earl Street/Jordan Well over time? Difficult times ahead for city planners for sure as the face of retail has changed over the last five years, and the last twelve especially. How do you keep the city centre alive and relevant?

We've been watching the TV series about London's Natural History Museum recently, and they have acres of storage of animals & fossils that never get displayed publicly. With the Ikea building being perhaps a little on the large side just for art alone, maybe using some of it as a secondary display venue for natural history articles would make good use of it?

Hi Rob, Part of the proposal is to house National "Reserve" collections and put more items on display. The other part is small to medium size performance venues that the city centre currently lacks. If done properly it could become a significant attraction.

I've written this before but I wish more of the Coventry centric stuff was on display, it doesn't even have to be the originals. Some artworks are quite small and delicate but would look super as a blown up copy with a description of what is displayed plus maps and images through the ages to compare with. There are tales to be told about the rivers, industry, religion, Georgian Coventry, etc. Lots of different ways of viewing the city. The displays could be illustrated with items from other collections (eg Coventry cars and coins aren't just found in Coventry and period stuff doesn't have to be strictly Coventry but 'of the type that would have been found there'). I'm a keen museum goer and the best ones tell stories with the exhibits, not just randomly plonk bits together. eg The tale of the slain Dun Cow and its shoulder blade resting on Gosford Gate could include an aurochs shoulder, a mammoth shoulder and a whale shoulder and let people decide which was displayed. Juxtapose that with stuff about St George's Hall and the Tailor's guild. There's the goose ford and the Civil War defences which they've recently excavated. Each area could be illustrated from prehistoric to modern industry. I'd rather see one of the old cars or cycles illustrating an area than a long line of cars in date order (although the transport museum works well enough). Even though I'm a keen gallery goer, I think that a pure art museum is more difficult to generate interest in without having the big names. That isn't easy to arrange, is expensive and is a security headache. Without a known local artist, it's not about Coventry anyway and must be a big enough of a draw to attract visitors to the area to see the gallery on its own. Potentially there are minor works from the stores of the big museums but it would be tough to sell to the public unless there was a continual stream of new exhibits. A lot of gallery visitors in London are there to tick off well known venues and aren't wholly drawn to see the art exhibits. A regular modern art fair might be a good addition. I do think that an exhibition of Coventry's relatively unknown artists would be nice, including Joseph Wingrave, Dr Troughton and Sydney Bunney. J M W Turner did a lot of sketches of Coventry although they're remarkably poor, but an exhibition could be themed around the works he completed.

Do we really need a huge art gallery that once the fascination wears off will get few visitors and will just become a strain on the rate payer. Why not turn it into something more useful, like a shelter for abused women or genuine homeless?

Nice sentiment Mick, but the IKEA building is not the one. It would be interesting to know how other out-of-London arty developments have done, like the the Tate Galleries in Liverpool and St Ives. Edit: Liverpool Tate had 666,000 visitors in 2019, and there are no admission charges. No idea how many of these were visitors spending money in the local economy, or were locals getting a culture fix. Or people sheltering from the rain.

Liverpool had a population of around 497,000 in 2019, so either some of them visited more than once or they had over 169,000 visitors. Coventry's current population is around 425,000. Assuming that everyone visits once (which won't happen), I think we would need an awful lot of visitors to make it viable? Also, is it going to be a place you would visit year on year? eg, I have been to the Air Museum, but only needed to go once?

The Tate Liverpool is housed within the historic Royal Albert Dock, itself a major attraction and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Maritime Mercantile City site - which probably attracts a few more visitors than Spon Street and Queen Victoria Road do in Coventry

Do we have any method for recording visitors?

I'd be more positive about the IKEA proposal if I heard a statement coming from anyone else apart from the Council! Plenty of talk about the Arts Council, etc but no-one else has confirmed anything that I have seen.

The Public in West Brom was intended to fill a similar function although it was purpose built. Unfortunately it wasn't successful and lost a lot of money. I believe it closed in 2013. Hopefully the IKEA building will fare better.

Perhaps it could be one of the "good causes" sponsored by the Lottery?