A Museum in the Making

Dorchester artist Peter Runeckles was given unique access to the Museum construction site between 2018 and 2020.

Working alongside the team from Acheson Construction, a series of watercolour paintings record the highs and lows of the building of the new Dorset Museum.

Peter Runeckles:

I realised that the process of demolition and rebuilding would never be seen by most people, so I thought I would do a series of paintings to record it. My pictures represent different stages of the process and different views including from the top of St Peter’s Church tower.

My pictures started with a photograph or a pencil sketch. Often the situation was changing very quickly, as for example in the series of views of the concrete being poured on the floor. The detail was then added with waterproof ink and painted in with watercolour. Each one took over 30 hours to complete.