YESTERDAY I had the pleasure of helping to display our vision for a new museum and art gallery to art enthusiasts in London, writes DAVID RENARD.

Items from our superb collection of modern British art are currently on display at the Osborne Samuel Gallery, in Mayfair, with the exhibition marking the start of our wider fundraising campaign to turn our museum and art gallery dream into a reality.

The exhibition was made possible by Gordon Samuel, who offered his gallery space to help us raise awareness of the collection.

Gordon, who lives in north Wiltshire, is a great supporter of our art collection and I would like to thank him for giving us this fantastic platform in order to reach out to a whole new audience.

In Swindon we are extremely proud of our nationally renowned art work, so it was nice to hear so many compliments from people who were taken aback by the treasures we are desperate to share with the wider public.

It further emphasised to me the importance of what we are trying to achieve.

Seeing works by the likes of Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Hans Coper on display was a glimpse into a future where people will come from far and wide to our town in order to see our paintings and ceramics for themselves.

The economic benefits such an attraction would bring to Swindon cannot be underestimated, which is why it forms one of our Pledges.

We have seen how similar investment in cultural facilities has benefited other towns and we know we can be just as successful.

The bold design concept for the new museum and art gallery, which was shared before Christmas, certainly created a lot of excitement within the town, but the hard work starts now.

The Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust, which is spearheading our plans, will be applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant of about £10m towards the £22m project.

The council has already pledged £5m and we aim to raise the remainder through fundraising and other sources.

The more interest we can generate in our collection the better, so if you can spare a few minutes please visit the museum and art gallery’s website www.swindonmuseumandartgallery.org.uk, search for @MuseumandArtGallery on Facebook or follow the @MuseumandArt Twitter feed.

But don’t stop there, share those links with family and friends and ask them to pass them on.

We need to continue to build on the momentum we have already created and we can all play our part.