[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="322"] Bradford Media Museum[/caption]
You may remember a previous Blog on the possible demise of the National Media Museum in the city of Bradford. We at Doorsan Ltd were very concerned about this as were many thousands of other people in the area and beyond.
It appears that people-power and political pressure has turned the proposal around, at least for the near future, a petition, organised by 38 Degrees was signed by 45,000 members. It was later announced by Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, that the proposed cuts to the science museums, of which the Media Museum is part of, has now been decreased. Therefore, the Bradford Media Museum, along with the other science museums in Manchester and York will not be closing.
It appears that discussions will now take place regarding what can be done to create more revenue and stimulus to promote the museum.
Brief History of the Media Museum
The Media Museum is on a site planned to become a theatre in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire. Work on the theatre had begun in 1960 but was never completed. A discussion between Bradford City Councillors and Dame Margaret Weston of the Science Museum, London resulted in the development of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (as it was called originally), which was opened on June the 16th 1983. The Museum had the largest cinema screen in Britain, the IMAX, which was 5 stories high, with 6 channels of sound, installed. It initially specialised in presenting the science and art related skills of image making through the medium of photography, film and television in an educational and fun way, this included interactive TV galleries, displays of photographic equipment, historical settings to explain the establishment of the medium to name but a few items. Visitors were able to operate cameras in a studio situation using autocue and use chroma keying visual techniques; these techniques were continued after the Museum was re-named as the Media Museum.
We now await further developments for this Museum. If you are considering a visit to Doorsan showroom (open 6 days a week), which is approx. 3 miles from the Media Museum then why not, visit and show your support for a great Museum, which, at the moment has free admission.