Historic painted safety curtain at Northampton theatre to be restored, thanks to National Lottery grant

Work is underway to restore a painted safety curtain at Northampton’s Royal theatre that has been in use for more than 40 years.

Over a number of weeks, specialist art conservators, Chroma Conservation, will be cleaning the surface of the curtain, repairing the damage and retouching paint losses so it will be preserved for future audiences.

The heritage project was made possible by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Completed in 1978 by nationally acclaimed artist Sir Henry Bird, who lived and worked in Northampton until his death in 2000, the curtain’s design includes figures from classical mythology and the early history of theatre, all painted in the artist’s trademark flamboyant style.

The theatre’s chief executive Jo Gordon said: “We take our role as custodians of this gorgeous theatre very seriously so we are delighted to see the work taking place to conserve Sir Henry Bird’s masterpiece.

“At the same time it’s wonderful to have the chance to inspire young people to engage with the theatre and its history and to think about creative roles in the industry.”

In an associated community project, supported by Northamptonshire Community Foundation and in collaboration with Northants Cultural Education Partnership, the theatre’s Creative Learning team has worked with digital artist Chris Lowe and Red Bear Media to develop an interactive website for primary schools which provides additional classroom resources linked to the safety curtain.

The schools are invited to take part in the theatre’s ‘Design a Safety Curtain’ competition where classes can use their creativity to produce their own curtain design that reflects their current experiences of theatre and what, who and where is important to them in Northamptonshire.

Entries will be exhibited as part of an online digital gallery and, for the winning entries, schools will be invited for a backstage tour at the theatre.