A few weeks ago, I popped over to the museum formerly known as the Royal Cornwall for a meeting, and was given a sneak peek through the double doors.

The smell of wet paint hung in the air, stepladders lurked in corners and staff scurried about bearing stuffed animals in display cases. The walls were bare in anticipation of precious artworks to be hung. Work was still very much in progress, and there was a tangible sense of urgency with opening day fast approaching.

Last Monday, I attended the official press event to mark the big reveal of what is now the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery. Around 250 people had passed through the doors the weekend before, and I imagine they were as impressed as I was by what they saw.

Co-director Jonathan Morton confirms this: “There were a few ‘wows’ and ‘amazings’, which was exactly what we wanted to hear,” he smiles.

Following two months of closure, the main atrium – renamed the Heart of Cornwall Gallery – is flooded with light and studded with exhibitions about Cornwall’s identity, history and culture, as told through its people and places.

The first-floor balcony has been “salon-hung” from floor to ceiling; works by old masters, including German Renaissance painter and printmaker Lucas Cranach the Elder and English landscape artist John Constable, rub shoulders with modern pieces created in the community during the two months that the museum was closed for its renovation.

The museum is home to over one million objects, spanning 4,000 years, so it’s only right that some have been retired and others brought out of storage. Old familiars have been moved: the Cornish Giant, Stratton-born Antony Payne, now resides on the balcony alongside portraits of Helston white witch Thomasine Blight and Black John of Tetcott, a diminutive “jester” with a talent for swallowing and regurgitating strings of live mice.

The carriage that once stood in the entrance hall was relocated to the Nature Gallery with the help of some of the UK’s last remaining specialist wheelwrights (it squeezed through the doorway with 2cm to spare on either side). Its materials have been listed for consideration of their carbon footprint, in line with wall-mounted exhibits such as plastic nurdles designed to show the impact humans have had on their habitat.

It all adds up to dispel the myths that museums are dusty old places where historic items must be viewed by highbrow folk in tones of hushed reverence. Says Jonathan: “We’re starting to bring to life the vision of what we want this amazing organisation to be - at the heart of the community, a visitor destination Truro can be proud of.”

Then there’s the rebrand that has dropped the “Royal” from its title. “We wanted to create an avenue for people to have conversations about what’s going on in the world, in a safe space. We want to be really accessible for people - ‘Royal’ doesn’t always lend itself to that,” says co-director Bryony Robins. “On the other hand, the Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC) still has its royal patronage, and with it the gravitas that says ‘we are a learned society,’ that you’d want for a place of academic research.”

The RIC was founded in 1818 as a philanthropic body to promote excellence in science and art so Cornish people could have access to wider culture at a time when the peninsula was cut off from the rest of the country, and knowledge was accessible only to the fortunate few. It has been in River Street – the building was previously the Trustee Savings Bank and Henderson’s Mining School - since 1908, and is as active today as ever before, sharing knowledge through exhibitions, events, schools and community work both within its walls and beyond.

However, like so many cultural establishments, it endured a rocky few years post-pandemic. In 2022 the museum faced imminent closure when Cornwall Council withdrew its funding, claiming its bid "did not measure up". The council relented and provided interim support while the museum applied for funding from partners, securing £2.3-million from Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme via the UK government’s Shared Prosperity Fund to create a "museum for the 21st century".

The first space to undergo a major facelift was the Rashleigh Gallery, home to an impressive mineral collection. It reopened last year, and its interactive element was a sure sign of a lean towards modern methods; at the touch of a screen, visitors can now marvel at a full-wall deep-dive into the atomic properties of their favourite minerals.

In a further nod to modern sensibilities, Bryony confirms some items may be repatriated especially those involving human remains. “We are simply custodians, and if there’s a better place for things to be, we’re more than happy to discuss this,” she says. Fans of museum favourite Iset Tayef Nakht, the mummified Egyptian priest, need not worry; he will remain but staff are “working in the longer term with the British Museum to reinterpret the space”. (Measures were taken to shield his resting place from the inevitable hubbub of a major restoration programme).

As well as items from the permanent collection, culture vultures can enjoy a calendar of temporary and touring exhibitions. Kurt Jackson is thrilled to be one of the first to exhibit in this freshly minted space. One of his works, The Oak Tree of Life, hangs at the entrance to the Bonython Gallery; it’s made up of 12 panels, and is so big, this is the first time he’s been able to hang it in its entirety.

“The show looks great in this space,” Kurt told me on opening day, beaming at the presentation on his Biodiversity collection. “It’s always very gratifying to see a new exhibition go up, but to see it here at the museum as it begins a new chapter in its life makes it all the more delightful.”

Between now and mid-June, visitors can also view St Petroc’s Portraits, a tribute to the clients and staff of the Cornish homelessness charity; the lost works of late Terry Shaul, an undiscovered artist of undeniable talent; and Withy Lore, celebrating the craft and heritage of lobster pot making.

Seeing the museum with a fresh lick of paint made me realise how tired some of the previous offer had become. I spent a lot of time in the Nature Gallery with my daughter when she was small, and the dressing-up clothes and jigsaws looked rather worn. In some ways, this was part of the appeal; the kids didn’t mind, and the parents didn’t need to worry about nice things being wrecked.

The classy new dressing-up clothes were commissioned from Falmouth artists Sara Lowes of Animalesque and Alice Archer, with masks to reflect local fauna from the iconic chough to the Cornish Black Bee, and beautiful capes worthy of any grown-up’s wardrobe. I hope they will be able to withstand sticky hands and snotty noses, and I absolutely love the display cabinet left empty for little darlings to strike a pose.

A few days after the opening, we returned as a family for a long-overdue visit. It was an unqualified success, and I have a feeling our £10 annual passes will see plenty of use over the next 12 months.