Worthing Museum and Art Gallery is in the centre of Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

 near the grade II* listed St Paul's

St Paul's Church, Worthing

St Paul's Church in Worthing, England, was opened in 1812 as the Worthing Chapel of Ease. It was built so that the residents and visitors to the newly created town of Worthing would not need to travel to the parish church of St Mary in Broadwater...

 and is the largest museum in West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

. It celebrated its centenary in 2008.

Collections & Displays

Worthing Museum and Art Gallery has one of the largest costume

Costume

The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...

 and textile

Textile arts

Textile arts are those arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization, and the methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously, while...

 collections in the UK. The 19th century and 20th century galleries display just a tiny fraction of the museum's contents. The current display in the 19th century gallery looks at the changing shape of women during the century. The 20th century gallery concentrates on women's fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

s including pictures of local residents through the ages. There is also a small menswear display.

The museum also holds records for all archaeological finds between the rivers Adur

River Adur

The Adur is a river in Sussex, England; it gives its name to the Adur district of West Sussex. The river was formerly navigable for large vessels up as far as Steyning, where there was a large port, but over time the river valley became silted up and the port moved down to the deeper waters nearer...

 and Arun

River Arun

The Arun is a river in the English county of West Sussex. Its source is a series of small streams in the St Leonard's Forest area, to the east of Horsham...

. This includes the John Pull

John Pull

John Henry Pull was an unlikely archaeological hero. He started life as a soldier in World War I where he learnt surveying skills. After a stint as a gramophone salesman he became a postman and a security guard but always his main interest was archaeology. He was a key member of the Worthing...

 Collection of neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 flint mines, featured on the television series Time Team

Time Team

Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining...

, the Patching

Patching

Patching is a small village and civil parish that lies amidst the fields and woods of the southern slopes of the South Downs in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It has a history going back to before the Domesday survey of 1087. It is located four miles to the east of Arundel, to the...

 hoard of gold coins, an Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 long boat, and the Highdown Goblet - an Ancient Egyptian glass vase with an Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 inscription, found at the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 cemetery at Highdown

Highdown Hill

Highdown Hill is a prominent hill in the South Downs, as its name suggests, reaching a height of . The summit of the hill and its western slopes lie in the parish of Ferring in the Arun district, while its eastern slopes lie in the borough of Worthing. It is a popular spot for picnickers,...

.

The museum has over 900 dolls and a collection of toys from the Georgian period to the present day, in its Juvenilia collection, along with the Colin Mears Collection - 2000 objects documenting the history of 20th Century Childhood. It also has social history, numismatics

Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...

, and fine

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

 and decorative art

Decorative art

The decorative arts is traditionally a term for the design and manufacture of functional objects. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine arts", namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale...

 collections.

Art collection

Most of the works collected in the Museum's early years were by artists that had strong Sussex links. However there were exceptions include Nicholas Roerich, Hobbema, Wynants and a piece from the School of Bassano. The collection diversified to include the main movements in British painting and includes Bianca (1869), a painting by William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...

. There are also works by Lucien Pissarro

Lucien Pissarro

Lucien Pissarro was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhibited with Les XX. Apart from his landscapes he painted only a few still-lifes and family...

 and Ivon Hitchens

Ivon Hitchens

Ivon Hitchens was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 during World War II, at which point he moved to a caravan on a patch of woodland near Petworth in...

.

Sculpture is represented through works by John Skelton

John Skelton (sculptor)

John Skelton MBE was the nephew of Eric Gill and was also noted as an important letterer and sculptor after initially being apprenticed to his uncle shortly before Eric Gill's death...

, Philip Jackson

Philip Jackson

Philip, Phillip or Phil Jackson may refer to:* Philip Jackson , British actor, played Chief Inspector Japp* Philip Jackson , Royal Sculptor...

, Dora Gordine

Dora Gordine

Dora Gordine, FRBS aka La Gordine, was a British sculptress.-Early career to 1939:Dora Gordine's childhood has not been well documented. There is confusion over her date of birth with various dates 1895 , 1898 and 1906 mentioned...

 and Anthony Stevens

Anthony Stevens

Anthony Stevens is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Kangaroos. He was named as ruck rover in the club's official 'Team of the Century'....

 who are all nationally recognised but have links to the region. The Museum acquired Skelton's The Diver (1970), a carving in walnut wood, in 2008. This was made possible through the V&A Purchase Fund and the Friends of the Worthing Museum.

The Art Gallery regularly hosts visiting exhibitions such as Jon Edgar

Jon Edgar

Jon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.-Biography:...

 in 2010 and Dora Gordine

Dora Gordine

Dora Gordine, FRBS aka La Gordine, was a British sculptress.-Early career to 1939:Dora Gordine's childhood has not been well documented. There is confusion over her date of birth with various dates 1895 , 1898 and 1906 mentioned...

 in 2011, in association with Kingston University

Kingston University

Kingston University is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992....

's Dorich House Museum.