Aims
As with all charities, we have a legal Constitution that provides the ground rules within which we must work. A key part of the Constitution determines our objectives: “The education of the public by promoting, supporting, assisting and improving Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives through the activity of a group of supporters”. In support of that objective we are empowered to carry out a range of activities, the details of which you can find in our Constitution. It also sets out some simple rules about how we run the organisation. (Constitution clicks through to the Constitution.)
History
The Friends have their roots in two charitable organisations: the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, founded in 1947, and Bristol Magpies, founded in 1977 and in 2007 renamed Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives to better reflect our activities and purpose. The two groups merged in 2018 so that we could more effectively run our social programmes and support the work of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.
Since 1977 we have raised over £3 million to help fund acquisitions, conservation and display, education and interpretation across the nationally-recognised sites and collections.