Artist, designer, filmmaker, storyteller, collector, George Musgrave has, at ninety years of age, created a museum around his own life, interests and collections, constructing an idiosyncratic, self-curated, vision of a personal archive.

George Musgrave worked for Herald Miniatures and was responsible for many of their designs, including the 'Swoppett' cowboys and Indians. He worked for many other companies and his designs went all over the world.  The Musgrave Collection is an unusual and somewhat startling enterprise.

The Musgrave Collection's first incarnation was is in Heathfield, Sussex. It opened in 1983 and was housed in a single room. In 1989, the collection moved to Patcham Windmill, on the outskirts of Brighton. Then, in 1995, the collection was housed in a building in Royal Parade, on Eastbourne's seafront, finally moving to its current Seaside Road location in 2003. Further information about the evolution of the museum can be found in the booklet The Musgrave Collection; a Guide to the Collection available at the museum.

George Musgrave took a prominent part in the 2007 BBC documentary What Did You Do In The Great War, Daddy? This film was awarded a four-star rating, and has been repeated six times. It was nominated for the Grierson Award 2008 and came close to winning. Some scenes were shot in the museum. Further information is available at http://griersontrust.org/sl_historical.htm and http://testimonyfilms.com (the production company which made the film.)

George Musgrave has been the subject of TV and radio programmes and has featured in national newspapers. Last year the museum was featured in a four-page spread in international art magazine Artworld.

A central feature of the museum is a series of forty paintings depicting the life of St. Paul. These are the result of thirty years of research and took twenty years to paint.

A display cabinet titled From the Caveman to the Computer illustrates the evolution of written communications from stone-age times to the present.

In 1949 George Musgrave shot a film, The Patient Years, using a clockwork 16mm cine-camera. The film lasted one hour and had a cast of twenty.

George Musgrave wrote several books, the latest being What Happened to Anderida? - a scale model of what Eastbourne's Roman villa may have looked like.

The villa once stood approximately where the entrance to the pier is now. The discovery of its foundations and other Roman finds in Eastbourne are detailed in George Musgrave's latest book What Happened to Anderida? which is on sale exclusively in the Museum.

Proclamed "One of the most fascinating exhibitions in the U.K" by  Artworld Magazine, April/May 2008, the musgrave collection is a must see!

For more information and a glimpse at some of the items in the collection you can click here.

We will be presenting some of the items on ToyCollector and hopefully have an interview with Mr. Musgrave.