What a shock! We all thought it was going to Manchester. Having a quick look at the NFM website – it seems it’s gone to Istanbul. Closer look shows it’s a few pieces for a while. Istanbul, Manchester perhaps hard to tell them apart and the driver wasn’t used to GPS.
Urbis is closing its doors for 18 months from 27th February 2010 to transform itself into the new NFM. Difficult to know what they’re doing all that time. One month to remove the old stuff out. A couple of months to move the new stuff in. A few shirts and boots, M&S would crack it in days and that leaves 15 months spare.
Although they’re going to spend a few million pounds so quite a bit of time will be spent designing a new format. More interactive it is said and good enought to attract 400,000 visitors a year. With Harvey Nichols and Selfridges only a stones throw away the smart set must be getting excited.
Then there is some kind of handover and an on-going negotiation about what, if anything, remains at Preston. The museum is only just at critical mass in one location so the idea of having equal status at two locations seems far fetched.
My own plan is that some elements of the NFM and some special exhibitions should be at Preston. There should also be a Lancashire football and sport exhibition for Preston, Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Accrington, Wigan and maybe Bolton. It could include other sports like Lancashire rugby and cricket. Lancashire needs somewhere to celebrate it’s sporting past and future.
That Preston attracted 100,000 visitors a year isn’t a bad number. I wonder how many visit other museums in the area and what a target for a reduced museum would be.
I think the museum a bit difficult to take in, maybe it’s bad attention span. Maybe football is too club oriented. Personally I’d rather look at stuff about PNE than Bobby Moore’s shirt, without meaning to be disrespectful. The Tom Finney exhibition and view over the Deepdale pitch are the highlights for me.
So how about a PNE and Lancashire Sport Museum with view over the pitch and a cafe worth going into.