Home Bargains sponsors The Skylight Gallery in Museum of Liverpool

Merseyside based retailer Home Bargains has sponsored a gallery at the new Museum of Liverpool on the city’s famous waterfront.

The Skylight Gallery will be sponsored by the company for a two-year period, which begins with the display of the Liverpool Tapestry, conceived and funded by Home Bargains in 2008 in conjunction with the Merseyside Embroiderers’ Guild.

The sponsorship will enable the space which is currently displaying Mike McCartney’s Liverpool photographic exhibition, to be used for future exhibitions and associated community programmes.

Janet Dugdale, Director of the Museum of Liverpool said: “At a time when budgets are being cut and funding for our Museums is reduced, sponsorship from companies such as Home Bargains is a lifeline to National Museums Liverpool, allowing us to develop new exhibitions. We are grateful for this opportunity to provide a changing programme in the Skylight Gallery, one of the Museum of Liverpool’s special exhibition spaces.”

The Skylight Gallery sits at the top of the Museum’s sweeping staircase, one of a number of architectural features of the building which was opened to the public in July last year. Displayed opposite Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Cityscape, which was commissioned by National Museums Liverpool in 2008, the Liverpool Tapestry represents the people, places and passions of Liverpool.

Joe Morris, Operations Director of Home Bargains said: “The process of creating the Liverpool Tapestry began with Home Bargain’s Go Create 08 campaign as a way to get people to be more hands on and involved in Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture celebrations by producing something themselves.

“More than 150 people were involved in creating the Tapestry, so it was vital we found somewhere to display it in all its glory. The Skylight Gallery is a perfect space, and we hope that the two-year funding from Home Bargains will have an impact in allowing people to enjoy not only the Tapestry, but the other special exhibitions that are to follow.”

TJ Morris, the company which Home Bargains trade under, was established over 30 years ago by Tom Morris who opened his first store in Liverpool. Coming from a retailing family that has run shops in Liverpool for three generations, Tom has grown the business organically to become one of the biggest privately owned companies in the UK. Still following in the family tradition TJ Morris remains a family-run and family-owned business.

Louise Kelly, Head of Development for National Museums Liverpool said: “It’s been great working with a company such as Home Bargains that has its own history in the city, and is recognised by so many of our visitors from around the country.

“The sponsorship package is a fantastic opportunity for the Museum. We’re looking forward to having the Liverpool Tapestry on display, and showing off the hard work that so many people put into it. The Museum of Liverpool has already received nearly 900,000 visitors since opening last July, so this is the perfect place for it to get the recognition it deserves.”

The Liverpool Tapestry: People, Places and Passions opened on Friday 27 April and will run until Sunday 9 September. The huge Tapestry features 338 hand-stitched individual panels to make up a triptych, which cumulatively spans over six metres in length. The panels feature iconic images including Superlambananas, the city’s historic buildings, and aspects of Liverpool that have special meaning for the individual embroiderers, who worked with the Merseyside Embroiderers’ Guild to create the finished piece.