Celts, art and identity

PT Projects were proud to continue our relationship with The British Museum and to be involved in the first major exhibition to examine the full history of Celtic art and identity in the spacious new Sainsbury Exhibition Wing at the British Museum.

We provided the cost planning and procurement services. We have worked many times with Real Studios and this was a great exhibition to be involved with.

Set within the British Museum's new Sainsbury Exhibition Gallery, Real Studios created a beautifully integrated scheme for Celts, which opened September 2015, drawing inspiration from the voluptuous organic forms and intricate patterns of Celtic art and design.

Real Studios split the enormous gallery down the centre, drawing visitors along its sweeping form to a magnificent 4m high Celtic cross cast at the end of the gallery. The wall's curves create natural alcoves and enclosures which reveal clusters of smaller artefacts and also frame the larger items - stone carvings, statues and paintings.

In this way, the visitor is drawn around the exhibition, promenade style, as the chronological story unfolds of these Iron Age, Roman and Early Medieval people - their customs, rituals and beliefs - along one side; then takes visitors through the revival of their art along the other.