A TOP museum has marked its second anniversary by gaining international recognition.
The £26m Great North Museum in Newcastle was shortlisted for the European Museum of the Year award.
Iain Watson, director of Tyne Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) , Prof Eric Cross, Dean of Cultural Affairs at Newcastle University and Steve McLean, senior manager at the Great North Museum, attended the awards ceremony in Germany.
Although the title was won by Belgium’s Gallo-Roman Museum, the Newcastle team delivered a presentation on the Great North Museum and the North East to representatives from 35 leading museums across Europe.
Mr Watson said: “We acted as ambassadors for the Great North Museum and the region and we had great feedback from delegates.”
Newcastle was up against venues such as the Stalingrad Battle Museum, in Volvograd, Russia; the Istanbul Toy Museum; the National Police Museum, in Finland, and the Museum of Broken Relationships, in Zagreb, Croatia.
To represent the quality of the Great North Museum’s exhibits, the team took with them a Roman ivory knife handle carved with the image of a gladiator, which was found at Arebia Roman fort, South Shields, South Tyneside.
The museum, which combines the collections of the former Hancock Museum of Natural History and Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Greek Museum, had attracted 1,325,967 visitors by last Sunday – far in excess of the forecast figures of 300,000 a year. The number of visitors has been fantastic as has the response of people to the terrific collections on show. We have also been delighted by the number of repeat visits,” said Mr Watson.
The leading visitor favourite is the cast of a T-Rex dinosaur which had been discovered in the United States, followed by the “animal wall” with specimens from across the natural world. The museum has been given a 98% satisfaction rating by its visitors.
The building’s events space has also been in high demand from bodies ranging from charities to businesses. Although the Great North Museum has escaped cuts, funding for TWAM from Tyne and Wear’s five councils has been reduced by an average of 11% and Government grant has fallen by 3.1%
Savings will come from reduced opening hours. Instead of closing only for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Monkwearmouth Station Museum and Gateshead’s Shipley Art Gallery will shut for two weeks, South Shields Museum for three weeks and Segedunum Museum at Wallsend for four weeks.
Segedunum will also now close on winter weekends from November to March, Arbeia Roman fort will shut a month earlier for the winter on October 1 and South Shields Museum will also now close on Sundays all year, with reduced hours on Saturdays from 11am-4pm.
