Gordon Rintoul: Time to usher in a new era for our cultural cornerstone

With the revamped National Museum of Scotland set to reopen its doors, director Dr Gordon Rintoul gives an overview of what we can expect

The wait is nearly over. After more than three years, the 47.4 million redevelopment of the National Museum of Scotland is complete. We are delighted to finally be able to open the doors tomorrow morning, with the welcome assistance of lucky Evening News reader Bryony Hare and, with your help, a cast of thousands.

The museum has been a cornerstone of Edinburgh life for more than 150 years. It is one of the Capital's and Scotland's best-loved and most important centres of culture, learning and discovery. We are well aware of the level of responsibility which comes with a redevelopment such as this - it is your museum.

With the redevelopment, we have created a national museum fit for the 21st century and yet, at the same time, we have been able to restore the splendour of the magnificent Victorian building.

There will be 16 new galleries, a huge amount of new public space and many thousands of items going on display for the first time. A new street level, stone-vaulted entrance hall provides a dramatic route into the building, and is also more accessible. In the floor above, we have restored the soaring, glass-roofed Grand Gallery to its original purpose, the display of objects.

The Window on the World, rising the full four-storey height of the building, is a spectacular assembly of over 800 objects from across our collections.

The new galleries show off many of the highlights of the national collections. Around 80 per cent of the objects going on display have not been seen in public for generations, some a century or more. From a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton cast to a giant Pacific island feast bowl, and from some of the earliest fossils to Alexander Fleming's Nobel Prize gold medal, there is a huge range on display.

With a host of audio-visual programmes, interactive exhibits - and two galleries specially designed for families - the new National Museum of Scotland has something for people of all ages.

Escalators, panoramic glass lifts and new circulation routes make it easier to get around the building, while new restaurants and shops cater for the needs of our visitors.

The museum will be more welcoming than ever to younger visitors, with the two new galleries aimed specifically at children. There is also a hugely increased and improved range of learning facilities, which will enable us to further develop our already very active education programmes, whether for school children or older learners. The development will make a major contribution to the local and national economy, with superb new facilities for public events, hospitality and temporary exhibitions.

Independent research commissioned last year has shown that the redeveloped museum will support more than 1500 jobs in Edinburgh, and generate an estimated 39m annually in the city's economy.

We will have an expanded events programme, with activities next month as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Fringe and the International Festival. There will be more to come later in the year with the recently announced RBS Museum Lates programme.

Our new temporary exhibition space will enable us to bring major international exhibitions to Edinburgh. We are already looking forward to welcoming Fascinating Mummies, which opens in February, and Catherine the Great next summer.

It has been a challenging but rewarding journey for everyone involved in the project. We hope that the new galleries and other developments will inspire and engage visitors both young and older. This is a proud moment in the history of a great museum - the climax of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation.

We look forward to sharing the results with our visitors now and those from generations to come, as a source of wonder, enjoyment and learning for the people of Edinburgh, and a first-class attraction for everyone who visits Scotland's capital.

I believe that a great city needs a great museum. Edinburgh is, without doubt, one of the greatest cities of the world and in the transformed National Museum of Scotland we believe we have created a great museum. I hope you like it.