Clowns Gallery-Museum

The Clowns Gallery-Museum is a museum of clowning situated at venues in Holy Trinity Church, Dalston and Wookey Hole, Somerset. Established in 1959, the collection contains costumes and props from famous clowns, as well as a reference library,[1] and is home to the Clown Egg Register, an archive of painted ceramic and hen's eggs which serve as a record of individual clowns' personal make-up designs. The egg gallery was created because according to an unofficial rule, no two clowns are allowed to have the same make-up. In order to ensure that clowns weren't copying each other's makeup style, the practice of painting each unique design onto an egg began. Real eggs were originally used, but were later replaced with ceramic eggs. The gallery opens on the first Friday of each month.[2] The collection is split between the museum's two sites.[3]

The museum was established in 1959 in Dalston and the collection was split to a venue in Wookey Hole in 2007. The Dalston museum is situated in what was the vestry of the Holy Trinity Church.[4] It was threatened with closure in 2014, but remained in place.[5] The Wookey Hole museum is run by Gerry Cottle, Vice President of Clowns International.[1]