Museum extension to host national exhibits

Artist Rebecca Louise Law has created a display of thousands of dried flowers imitating the "green corridors" created by railways

An extension to a park museum designed to host national art and history exhibitions has been unveiled.

Stockton Council said the £20m Spence Building, at Preston Park in Eaglescliffe, will have collections and touring exhibitions it did not previously have the space to host.

Reuben Kench, the council's director of community services and culture, said the people of the Tees Valley would no longer have to travel to London to see major works.

The first display, Tracks of Change, including paintings by Victorian painter William Powell Frith from the King's own collection, opens on Saturday.

The museum is based at Preston Hall, a Grade II listed 19th Century manor house which has been owned by the council since 1953.

The space also has a new cafe and shop beside the museum's existing Victorian street and old hall, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The museum is showing paintings on loan from King Charles

On show are three paintings depicting the impact of railways, on loan from the Royal Collection and Manchester City Galleries, displayed as a group for the first time.

An installation from artist Rebecca Louise Law, called Corridors, features thousands of dried flowers and grasses suspended from the ceiling imitating the "green corridors" created by railways.

Mr Kench said: "We've got a space that's bespoke, 500sqm of exhibition space enabling us to borrow items from national collections.

"We can do things here that we've never been able to do before, bringing objects and exhibitions to the people of the Tees Valley who previously would have had to go to London or other major cities to see - it's going to be transformational."