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A total of 1,672,677 visits were made to the seven national museums – 9% up on 2006-07 – including a record 674,678 to St Fagans National History Museum, 353,509 to National Museum Cardiff in Cathays Park and 264,195 to Wales’s newest museum, the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, the organisation that operates the national museums, attributes this phenomenal success story to three main factors:

• the continuing popularity of the Welsh Assembly Government funded free entry policy
• The opening of the National Waterfont Museum in Swansea in 2005 
• A strong public programme of Centenary anniversary exhibitions and events during 2007

“Amgueddfa Cymru had a great 100th birthday in 2007,” said Director General, Mike Houlihan. “Not least because families and people from all over Wales and beyond joined in the party to celebrate a century of culture and learning in the fields of history, arts and natural sciences.

“But the number of visits made to the museums is only one measure of success for an organisation that aims to offer a high quality visitor experience. During the year, we also looked closely at our plans for the future , asking  the people of Wales how they would like to see their national museums developing and moving forward.

“Their message is very clear. They want to see a  word class museum of learning that is telling the world the rich stories of Wales’s culture, its environment and its peoples.

“In response to that aspiration, major short  and long term investments are already underway at both the Cathays Park site in the centre of Cardiff and St Fagans.

“The first will allow the national art treasures and natural history collections to be displayed more effectively at Cathays Park and the second will enable St Fagans to affirm itself as the National History Museum for Wales and tell the story of the people of Wales from the earliest times to the present day.”

Highlights of Amgueddfa Cymru’s centenary in 2007 included a new indoor gallery at St Fagans, called Oriel 1, which uses objects, photography, film, art and personal stories to show the multiplicity of experiences that have created today’s Wales.

Visitors from Wales and beyond also flocked to National Museum Cardiff in the summer to see works created by artists such as Monet, Cézanne and Van Gogh as the extraordinary story of art collectors Gwendoline and Margaret Davies was explored in the major exhibition, Industry to Impressionism.

In October, the opening of St Teilo’s medieval church at St Fagans saw many more thousands coming to see a stunning ‘new’ re-erected historic building at the nation’s most popular visitor attraction.

The centenary closed with the opening of the Origins exhibition at National Museum Cardiff. This innovative archaeology display challenges visitors to question objects from the past in a way that helps us understand who we are today.
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales operates seven national museums across Wales. These are National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans: National History Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, National Wool Museum, Drefach and the National Slate Museum, Llanberis. Entry to all Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum sites is free, thanks to the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.

For further information, please contact: Director of Communications, Robin Gwyn 07810 657172

The People’s Museums
www.museumwales.ac.uk

National Museum Cardiff
Cathays Park, Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff is unique among national museums in the UK in its range of arts and science displays. During 2006/07 it started work on developing a distinct National Museum of Art, alongside the national collections of Archaeology & Numismatics, Geology and Biodiversity & Systematic Biology.

St Fagans: National History Museum
St Fagans, Cardiff
One of Europe’s leading open-air museums, St Fagans is part of our group of four Social & Industrial History Museums. Visitors can explore and enjoy over 2,000 years of history in over forty re-erected period buildings that have been collected from all over Wales.

Big Pit: National Coal Museum
Blaenafon, Torfaen
Set in the heart of the World Heritage Site at Blaenafon, Big Pit is a complete former working coal mine. It now offers an experience unparalleled in Britain and unique to Wales. Guided by ex-miners, visitors descend over 90 metres to the very depths of the mine and experience the total darkness that the miners worked in day after day.

The National Roman Legion Museum
Caerleon, Newport
Founded by the Caerleon Antiquarian Association in 1850, and transferred in 1930, the National Roman Legion Museum has been displaying a rich collection of Roman finds for over 150 years. These include sculptures, inscriptions, tombstones, building materials, a labyrinth mosaic, military equipment, pottery, glass and jewellery. The town of Caerleon stands on the site of one of only three permanent legionary bases in Roman Britain.

The National Slate Museum
Llanberis, Gwynedd
Here, the story of slate unfolds in the original quarry workshops. As well as the foundry, forges, sheds and the largest working waterwheel on mainland Britain, skilled craftsmen give live displays of splitting and dressing slate by hand.

The National Wool Museum
Dre-fach Felindre, Carmarthenshire
Located in the heart of the west Wales countryside, this museum tells the story of the forty mills once clustered around Dre-fach Felindre. Cambrian Mills – the only mill that has remained in continuous operation since it was built – now houses the Museum.

The National Waterfront Museum
Maritime Quarter, Swansea
In the heart of Swansea’s regenerated Maritime Quarter, the National Waterfront Museum is housed in a listed waterfront warehouse linked to a new, ultra-modern slate and glass building. The opening of the Museum in October 2005 was the culmination of a ten-year strategy that saw £40m of investment in our four industrial museums across Wales. The Museum provides a unique insight into the effects of industrialisation and maritime trading on life in Wales.