Today, the Harris is recognised as one of the leading museums and contemporary art venues in the region. We combine working closely with and for our local community with developing a national and international reputation for quality and innovative programmes. We are a major tourist attraction, welcoming over 250,000 visitors annually.
Since 2005, we have been able to develop our public programmes and make improvements to the galleries, though funding from the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) Renaissance in the Regions programme.
The Harris has also benefited from significant funding from other sources including Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, The Wolfson Foundation, The Art Fund, the DCMS/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Headley Trust, PRISM, The Monument Trust, Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Lancashire County Council, the Friends of the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, the Harris Trust and other local funders as well as from private donors.
The Harris collections are among the finest in the region and include objects of national significance.
The collections include over 70,000 objects. Increasing and recording knowledge about the collections is fundamental to our work. We work in partnership with other museums, universities and specialists, employing the latest scientific techniques to uncover the stories behind our objects, for instance to discover details of the origins of ancient human skulls uncovered during the 19th Century Preston Dock excavations.
