Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum – formerly The Smith Institute – has played a very special part in the history of Stirling since its foundation in 1874. Established by the bequest of artist Thomas Stuart Smith (1815–1869) on land supplied by the Burgh of Stirling, it is an historic public-private partnership which has continued to the present day. It was founded as a gallery of mainly contemporary art, with museum and library reading room ‘for the benefit of the inhabitants of Stirling, Dunblane and Kinbuck’.
Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
"Hans Meidner was Chairman when I joined the Friends. His portrait painted as a demonstration piece by James Fullerton in 1½ hours is now part of the Smith collection. The brochure of 1981 produced by Hans Meidner refers to the anonymous donor of £12,000, which made possible the opening of the Ballengeich Room in 1977, who is now known to be Mrs F. W. Saunders, later President of the Friends; when she made that generous gesture which surely saved the Smith from ignominious extinction, she was Miss Mary Service, Honorary Secretary."