A KEY supporter of Swindon’s bid to get a new museum and art gallery says investing in culture will transform the town.

As part of the masterplan to regenerate Swindon, the area around the Wyvern Theatre has been earmarked for redevelopment as a cultural quarter.

At the heart of the scheme would be a new museum and art gallery, designed to show off the town’s impressive modern art collection, believed to be the largest outside the Tate.

Started in the 1940s, it includes works by Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Henry Moore, LS Lowry and Maggi Hambling, as well as a large ceramics collection.

A bid to secure £12.5 million from the Heritage Lottery failed earlier this year but Swindon Borough Council chiefs have said they will try again.

Now Robert Hiscox, founder of Hiscox insurance and a famed art collector himself, has said it is his mission to see Swindon turned into a place which reminds people of culture.

Living locally and a key supporter of the museum and gallery bid, he says Swindon has an image problem but can turn it around.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: “I was High Sheriff of Wiltshire for a year and I saw Salisbury, which is lovely, and then I went to Swindon.

“I think the term for it is ‘architecturally challenged’.

It is ugly, but it’s wonderful that people appreciate that and want to make it better. My heart went out to Swindon.”

He said the museum could provide a much-needed ‘heart’ for the town.

“The current museum is in a house in the Old Town, which is not the heart of Swindon – but Swindon has no heart, that’s its problem,” he said.

“A town needs a heart.”

“Swindon is not a tourist destination. It has an image similar to that of Slough or Croydon. But it has an art collection which everyone admires, a good ceramics collection, and a great science and engineering heritage. We want to combine all of those in the new museum and gallery.

“If, by the time I die, Swindon has become a destination and the word makes people think of culture instead of ugliness, I will be a happy man.”

If the council is successful in its funding bid, then it has pledged £5 million towards the building, with the rest coming from private investors.

It has justified spending the money by saying it will attract more people and business to the town, thereby improving the economy, which Robert agrees with.

He said: “Does culture revive a town’s fortunes? Yes.

“You improve the economy of a town by improving its image. It attracts investment and makes people want to work there.”