New Scots transport museum to open 22 | 03 | 2011
GLASGOW'S NEW £74 million Riverside Museum — which houses the city's transport collection, which was previously displayed at the Kelvin Hall — is to open in June.
The Riverside Museum, positioned on the Clyde, will house around 3000 exhibits and will officially open at 10am on June 21.
The Riverside Museum will be the third home for Glasgow's transport collection since the 1960s and the first major museum the council has built since The Burrell Collection opened in 1983.
The previous Transport Museum at the Kelvin Hall in the city's west end attracted almost 500,000 visitors per year.
Glasgow City Council has spent £50.9m on the project, which also received £18.1m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The remainder is being raised through a public appeal.
"Donations are pouring in and everyone who gives money to the appeal will be recognised in the museum when it opens," Lord Smith of Kelvin, chairman of trustees for the Riverside Museum Appeal, said, "but time is running out to become a part of Britain's most exciting museums project."
Construction on the complex, which was designed by Stirling Prize-winner Zaha Hadid, began in 2007. Glasgow Life, an arms-length body of the city council, took possession of the facility in December, and Council leader Gordon Matheson, who will formally open the museum, praised the museum.
"Glasgow's position as Scotland's cultural powerhouse can only be enhanced by the opening of the Riverside Museum," Matheson said. "Zaha Hadid's breathtaking design has already been transformed into an iconic building that will bring visitors to the city from all over the world.
"That vision and ambition is being matched inside the building and we are counting down the days until the museum opens to the public."
The Tall Ship Glenlee, which is due to move from its present berth at Glasgow Harbour and will be berthed alongside the museum, will also open to the public on the same day.
"The Tall Ship will move to the new Pointhouse Quay on April 28, so the Glenlee can be exhibited permanently alongside the new Riverside Museum," Dr Christopher Mason, chairman of the Clyde Maritime Trust, said.
"The ship will be a perfect complement both to Zaha Hadid's building and the collections displayed inside it."
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Jim McGill