Update: The museum’s former home, Peak Buildings on Terrace Road, was sold at auction in January 2025. The museum opened in a temporary building next to Buxton Library in October 2026, while a permanent home is sought.
In May 2024, the We Are Buxton Community Forum (WAB), then made up of eight local groups, called a public gathering after the council announced that Buxton Museum and Art Gallery would not reopen at Peak Buildings.
The forum said it welcomed the council’s commitment to a museum service but was concerned about the future of the collection and the building.
Its statement at the time said:
“Whilst we welcome the commitment expressed by DCC to there being a future for BMAG, we remain concerned that a new home is sought for this valuable collection and that another of Buxton’s heritage buildings has an uncertain future. We need DCC to ensure that a suitable, long-term solution is swiftly secured with a view to establishing a viable single venue for the collection in Buxton. We support DCC efforts to establish extensive and ongoing interim activities to ensure that the museum and gallery remain accessible to as many people as possible.
We will mark the one year anniversary with a show of support on Saturday 8 June 2024 at 11am. The aim is to gather as many people as possible, of all ages, for a photo opportunity on the steps of the closed Terrace Road building. This is an opportunity to show the strength of feeling locally about the loss of this special place, the cultural activities and heritage collections and archives that have contributed so much to so many. The photo opportunity will be effective IF we can get lots of people to come along on 8th June.
DCC has been invited to receive the ‘Save BMAG’ petition on 8th June. The photo op event will take place even if DCC choose not to send a representative. If we don’t get to hand over the petition on 8th we will deliver it the following week when 4 WAB representatives have been invited to meet with DCC colleagues to discuss the future of BMAG. We are confident that this meeting would not be taking place if the Save BMAG campaign had not raised the profile of the value that BMAG brings to our town.”
The gathering on 8 June 2024
The gathering took place outside the former museum on 8 June 2024. Museums Journal reported that around 200 people attended, and Explore Buxton reported from the event.
Ahead of the gathering, WAB said a petition launched by Vision Buxton on its behalf had gained more than 5,000 signatures.
The event was planned as a photograph outside Peak Buildings, under the slogan “We love BMAG”. The museum had moved to the building from the Town Hall in 1928.
Before the event, WAB spokesperson Jean Ball called for a visible show of support for the museum’s future.
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