During his week of Work Experience in July 2017, Bedford Free School student Conor Chesterman visited the museums in the Cultural Quarter in Bedford. This is his review of his visit to The Higgins, Bedford and is part of his Arts Award Discover Qualification.

Today I visited The Higgins museum, which is an art and history museum located in Bedford. My first impressions of the museum were very high; it was modern, clean and interesting. The member of staff at the front desk was very friendly and helpful, and showed me a map and the different areas of the museum. The museum was very family friendly, with family areas and places to store bags and coats. I was impressed with the diversity of the exhibits in the museum. It covered a wide range of topics including natural history and art. In today’s visit, I decided to mainly concentrate on the art gallery and the first floor of the museum. This was because I find art interesting and was interested to see the different pieces they had displayed.

The art gallery had a large selection of artwork from a large variety of artists. The art gallery was interesting and provided lots of information about the different pieces of art. One piece of art that I particularly enjoyed was Ford Madox Brown’s “Death of sir Tristan”, as it was abstract and very colourful, however, it was very small compared to other paintings. I also like the drawings of Augustus John as I enjoy his style of drawing. One thing I would change about the art gallery is that I would include a wider variety of different art movements and styles. The gallery has many paintings and drawings that are very realistic including portraits and landscapes. I would like to include artworks in the style of cubism and abstract to make the gallery appear more colourful and exciting.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Higgins museum. It is fun and enjoyable for everybody. The museum is very interactive, with pull out draws and screens. This makes it more fun and exciting, especially for children. The Higgins museum is very educational which is good for school trips, and the wide variety of topics means that it interests everyone.