Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture
About
The Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture in the village of Berriew, Powys, is one of the most delightfully unexpected places in Wales — the only museum in the country dedicated to the work of a living Welsh artist, housed in a purpose-built building that is itself an artwork, set in the gentle mid-Wales countryside near Welshpool. Andrew Logan (born 1945) is a sculptor, jeweller, and theatrical personality whose work defies easy categorisation: large-scale mirror-mosaic sculptures, jewellery of extraordinary flamboyance, gilded mannequins, and theatrical environments that celebrate beauty, transformation, and joy in equal measure.
Logan is also known internationally as the founder of the Alternative Miss World competition, which he began in 1972 as a Bohemian celebration of individual self-expression in opposition to conventional beauty pageants. The competition — held irregularly but always with extravagant theatrical flair — has featured entries from artists, performance personalities, and boldly imaginative individuals across more than fifty years, and the museum holds costumes, trophies, photographs, and films from these celebrations. Derek Jarman, Zandra Rhodes, and Peter Blake are among the artists associated with the Alternative Miss World.
The museum building itself, designed by Peter Blake (the architect, not the pop artist), is a low-lying circular structure clad in local stone that sits harmoniously in the Berriew landscape. Inside, Logan's Mirror Ball sculptures — massive spheres covered in coloured mirror fragments that scatter light across walls and ceilings in kaleidoscopic patterns — create an environment of extraordinary visual intensity. The museum makes a compelling case that joy, colour, and the celebration of the human body are legitimate subjects for serious art, and that Wales can be the setting for something genuinely surprising.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Open Thursday to Sunday only, April to September — check dates carefully before visiting.
- The museum is in a rural village and is best reached by car; parking is free on site.
- Bring sunglasses if sensitive to intense light — the Mirror Balls in bright conditions produce extraordinarily vivid reflections.
- The museum shop sells Logan's jewellery, which is genuinely unusual and reasonably priced for original artist-made work.
- Combine with Welshpool (7 miles) and Powis Castle (National Trust) for a full day in mid-Wales.
- If visiting on a summer weekend, check whether Logan himself is in residence — occasional talks and guided tours by the artist are announced on the website.
- Berriew village has a good pub and the river walk is pleasant; allow time to explore the village as well as the museum.
Highlights
Mirror Ball Sculptures
Andrew Logan's Mirror Ball sculptures are his most iconic works — massive spheres, ovoids, and irregular forms entirely covered in coloured mirror fragments that catch and scatter ambient light into cascading patterns across walls, ceilings, and the faces of visitors. The largest Mirror Balls in the museum are several metres in diameter and weigh hundreds of kilograms; their construction is a labour of extraordinary patience, each fragment individually placed and cemented.
In a darkened space, or when struck by sunlight through skylights, they create an environment of pure visual delight that is impossible to convey in photographs.
The Alternative Miss World Archive
The Alternative Miss World competition, which Andrew Logan first staged in his London studio in 1972, has been one of British art's most sustained and joyful performance events. Participants design their own entries — costume, personal presentation, and 'talent' are judged by an audience and celebrity panel — in a spirit of inclusive, anti-hierarchical celebration that inverted the conventions of mainstream beauty pageants.
The museum holds costumes, photographs, film footage, and trophies from more than fifty years of events.
Derek Jarman, Zandra Rhodes, Divine, and many others have participated; the archive is a document of British alternative culture.
Jewellery Collection
Logan trained as an architect before becoming a sculptor and jeweller, and his jewellery occupies a distinctive position in British craft — maximalist, theatrical, and rooted in a philosophy that the human body is the ultimate setting for decoration. Large resin-set pieces in vivid colours, elaborate metalwork settings for semi-precious stones, and multi-layered necklaces and earrings that treat jewellery as miniature sculpture are all represented.
Some pieces were made for theatrical or film productions; others are objects of personal devotion.
The museum holds examples spanning five decades of Logan's jewellery practice.
Gilded Figure Sculptures
Alongside the Mirror Balls, Logan has made a series of figurative sculptures — often gilded or painted in gold and silver — that celebrate the human form with a mixture of reverence and camp extravagance. These works draw on sources ranging from ancient Egyptian sculpture to Bollywood cinema, and are suffused with Logan's characteristic belief that beauty is a moral value and that joy is a legitimate artistic subject.
The museum holds examples across a range of scales, from intimate cabinet pieces to room-filling figurative works.
Collections
The museum holds around 400 sculptures, jewellery pieces, and works on paper by Andrew Logan, spanning his complete career from the early 1970s to the present.
The Alternative Miss World archive comprises several hundred costumes, photographs, films, and performance documents from fifty years of events. The jewellery collection is particularly rich, representing Logan's practice as a jeweller across five decades.
Logan remains active and the collection grows through continued acquisition of new works.
Andrew Logan: A Life in Sculpture
Permanent display of sculptures, Mirror Balls, and jewellery spanning Logan's complete career from the early 1970s to the present.
Alternative Miss World: The Archive
Display of costumes, photographs, and films from the Alternative Miss World competition, 1972 to the present.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.