Science centre wins £360,000 to fund upgrade

Published on Friday 23 May 2003 01:00

GLASGOW Science Centre has won nearly £360,000 worth of funding for new exhibits about the weather, climate and the River Clyde.

The grant is expected to help encourage visitors to make more trips to the Pacific Quay attraction, which has suffered significant losses from the closure of its landmark tower.

A further 225,000 has been awarded to the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at Glasgow University for new displays about the scientist Lord Kelvin.

Scotland received a third of the nine ReDiscover grants announced yesterday to redevelop science centres and museums, which are funded by the Millennium Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick received nearly 120,000 for a new satellite video link to St Kilda, west of the Hebrides.

However, a 1.2 million bid by Our Dynamic Earth, in Edinburgh, for three new galleries was rejected. The attraction said it would re-apply for funding, but has alternative plans for attracting repeat visitors by staging more temporary exhibitions.

The Glasgow Science Centre cash will fund a new climate change theatre, which will show weather patterns from space, and an automatic weather station to illustrate weather data.

Information about the state of the Clyde, including its temperature and chemical make-up, will be displayed in another exhibit.

The award will also help fund a revamp the Science Show Theatre, which has remained closed since the complex opened two years ago because its seating was too steep.

Grant Slinn, the centre’s exhibits and programmes director, said the first of the new facilities should be open by the autumn.

Repairs are continuing on the centre’s 400ft tower but no re-opening date has been announced.