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
During the years of the Great Depression, the money left by Thomas Stuart Smith failed to return much by way of interest. The building began to develop problems, made worse by the Second World War. By the 1960s, the underfunding and lack of development was serious, and the enduring memory that many Stirling citizens have of the building in this period is the sound of rain being caught in numerous metal buckets and tin cans, spread around the floor at strategic points.