Plans for Newcastle's latest museum

Date: 2003-11-07, Publication: The Journal

Stunning! That was the impact predicted last night of the proposed £36m Great Museum of the North.

It came from the woman behind the designs for the complex, which would combine four of Newcastle\'s most important museums and galleries.

Dinah Casson, museum designer and director of London-based Casson Mann, is working with Newcastle University on the plans for the internationally-important collections of the Hancock, Antiquities and Shefton Greek museums and Hatton Gallery.

Last night she was at the university to deliver a public lecture on museums of the 21st Century. An £18m bid for the Newcastle project has been submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a decision is expected early next year.

If successful, the plans would see a complete redevelopment of the Hancock Museum and the listed buildings at the bottom of Claremont Road incorporated into a new complex which would be connected to the Hancock via a bridge.

Inside the Hancock there would be four glass pavilions rising from floor to ceiling.

Ms Casson said: \"We needed to find a radical solution which held all the objects, protected them and also created a sense of drama.\"

The columns would represent Earth, Air, Water and Land.

\"They will be like giant display cases and there would be film, projections and lots of technology. It certainly won\'t be boring,\" she said. \"This is a very exciting project. The collections in the museums are wonderful but at the moment they are under-exploited.

\"It would mean that something is happening at the north end of the city other than shopping.\"

The new complex, which would open in 2008, would also house an orientation area, a shop, cafe/restaurant, libraries, offices and education spaces. Dean of Cultural Affairs at Newcastle University Eric Cross said: \"We want to create an exciting and innovative world-class museum that will inspire future generations.

\"The plan is one of several projects which come under the university\'s planned Cultural Quarter project.\"

Tyneside is happy to be blackballed

People were bowled over when an artist took her latest work for a stroll along Tyneside\'s Quayside last night.

Yvonne Wendle, from Amsterdam, led a four-metre, black felt ball across the Millennium Bridge and along the banks of the Tyne in an effort to collect \"some of the character\" of Newcastle and Gateshead. The stunt was part of Yvonne\'s latest project - Five Inches Around the World - which involves leading the ball around cities in the Alps, Brazil and Nairobi.

Yvonne said she had chosen Newcastle after hearing of Geordie hospitality. She said: \"I picked Newcastle because the people are friendly and I was hoping to get a reaction from them - which I have.

\"The project is about collecting some of the character and textures of the different places on the ball and bringing it all together.\"

Yvonne\'s artwork is on display at the Baltic in Gateshead.

Invitation to Field of Hope

More than 10,000 daffodil bulbs are to be planted in a park and nature reserve in aid of a cancer charity.

People are being urged to turn up at Marden Quarry Park in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, to help in the mass planting from 9.30am to 2.30pm from November 17 to 23. Donations will go to Marie Curie Cancer Care. The bulbs have been provided for the Friends of Marden Quarry by English Nature.

The Cancer Care Field of Hope will cover the bankside of the park in front of Studley Gardens.

Project officer Will Hogg said: \"The aim is to get as many people from the community as possible.\" For details call Will on 0774 760-2917.

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