Partner Article

Record visitor numbers hit North museums

MUSEUMS and galleries on Tyneside have enjoyed a 500,000 rise in visitor levels in the last year including 750,000 visitors to the £26m Great North Museum (GNM).

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums said The Late Shows - Newcastle’s late-night cultural crawl for Museums at Night – alongside the redeveloped site formerly known as the Hancock Museum had led to record visitor numbers of more than two million people for 2009/10.

The GNM first opened in May with the more modest target of 300,000 visitors in 12 months.

“We always knew the Great North Museum would be a huge success but its popularity since it was launched has surpassed all of our expectations,” said Iain Watson, acting director of the Archives and Museums.

“We have an exciting programme of exhibitions, events and capital developments across our venues in the coming year so I am confident we will continue to see impressive visitor numbers.”

A “significant increase” in visitors were drawn to the Beatles and Bowie exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery, which has counted more than 60,000 guests to the 1960s themed show since it opened in April.

Numbers were also up at the city’s Discovery Museum and Shipley Art Gallery.

The Late Shows won the Best Integrated Campaign in the Northern Marketing Awards after a hugely successful 2009 festival which attracted more than 15,000 people.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .