Abbot Hall, managed by the Lakeland Arts Trust, houses an exceptional collection of fine art from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries as well as an ambitious and imaginative temporary exhibition programme. After an extensive period of neglect the building was close to collapse by the 1950s. At this time, a group of concerned locals set up the Lake District Art Gallery Trust (now the Lakeland Arts Trust) to rescue the derelict villa and build an art collection from scratch. Highlights are many, but include Romney's masterpiece The Gower Family, the enormous 'Great Picture' triptych as well as modern works by Ben Nicholson, Stanley Spencer and many others.