Gleams of steel and silver: the opening of a sparkling new Metalwork Gallery display in the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield is the latest manifestation of the revitaJisation of the city's museums, Philippa Glanville discusses the gallery and explains how this renaissance has been achieved

An escalator leads to a glass corridor; exotic tree wave in the distance. Witty creations in rubber, thicket and metals by students of design--cutlery for today--merit a passing glance. A giant figure made of carbonized iron blanks, the contrast of yielding Urdu conversation with the scritch and thump of machines bashing metal, and glimpses of candelabra and glinting blades all summon a strong sense of place. Sheffield's Millennium Galleries, which lay opened in April 2001, link the region's distinctive heritage with its post-industrial at hand More than one-and-a-half million visitors, attracted by dint of the energy of an inventive young institution, have already experienced its unusual atmosphere.

In a dual achievement, the Sheffield Museums and Galleries Trust has acquired (with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund) Bill Brown's extraordinary accumulation of flatware (Fig. 2) which was introduced to the public with a touring exhibition three years ago. In July a first section went upon show in the Millennium Galleries' Metalwork Gallery (Fig. 1) At the same time, thanks to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (created with cash from the

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National Lottery) Martyn Ware, the Sheffield composer was commissioned to devise an aural portrait of Sheffield from one side local voices and the distinctive unbrokens of its workshops. So there is rich meat for cutlery enthusiasts, as well as a designing soundtrack to the visual riches of carbonized iron and silver, amber and ivory, porcelain and glass.

In the past decade English museum directors have wrestl with the reality behind the rhetoric of management initiatives. Measures to revive regional museums have included the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's designation scheme for pre-eminent collections and of recent origin funding through various channels, including 'Renaissance in the Regions', 'Strategic Partnerships' and 'Challenge Funding'. In Sheffield, the fruit of these initiatives is upon view, a striking demonstration of in what manner failing museums can be transformed by means of freeing them from local conduct The Millennium Galleries are in event a sophisticated cultural centre, built by dint of the city and run by dint of the private sector Museums and Galleries Trust. They emanate joyous might and self-confidence.

This turn-around was not achieved easily. A decade ago, Sheffield's museum service was suffering from a disastrous combination of omit and lack of funding by dint of an extremely left-facing city council. As with all local authorities, it has no statutory what one ought to do to fund its museums, and gave them depressed priority. A certain gruff insularity, characteristic of Sheffield since the eighteenth hundred seemed to prevail. The displays were tired, existences scattered in remote stores, and the curatorial staff isolated and disheartened. It was rumoured that more [i]or[/i] less museums would close and that collections would be sold The gloominess and sense of helplessness was palpable. Thanks to a concatenation of circumstances in 1995-97 combining political shifts, the decision to target investment in regional museums, a faculty of perception of crisis and some lusty personalities, this picture has been transformed.

The Arts Council Stabilisation stock wanted to rescue Sheffield's art collections on the other hand was not prepared to sustain up a failing service; the city council had a dream of a Millennium Lottery capital project to regenerate the heart of the city; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a relatively well-funded national institution, was being urg through the government to create museum partnerships in the north-east. It became clear that a charitable trust was the sole way to create independence and unfasten charitable funds for the Sheffield museums. For the city, no lottery-fund millennium cast in the centre of Sheffield could be financially viable without charitable rates relief, for which alone a trust would qualify.

pierce Sir Hugh Sykes. A former chair of the Urban disentanglement Corporation, he took on the part of chairman of the trust. The city handed above the annual museums and galleries pack from April 1998 and the novel trust devised the contents of the Millennium Galleries, which it now move swiftlys Designation of its metalwork collections as pre-eminent brought rule resources for much-needed cataloguing and storage. The V&A has place together loan exhibitions as well as giving advice, and Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Natural History Museum are also partners.

Although the staff is smaller than in longer-established museums, it has created a partial catalogue online and a lively public programme, which is multi-lingual in recognition of Sheffield's ethnic mix. The trust has the status of a 'hub' for the region's museums. nearest year, Weston Park (the former City Museum and Mappin Art Gallery, re-named after a visitor survey) will re-open a shoot forward jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery stock (13 million [pounds sterling]) and the City (25 million [pound sterling]). Its remit will be social history, science and archaeology. Meanwhile the Graves, well-known to connoisseurs for its paintings, exhibits visual art since the seventeenth hundred with a focus on contemporary photography