The National Science and Media Museum reopened to the public on Wednesday, 8 January 2025 and followed this soft launch with a day of events and activities on Saturday, the 11th. The re-opening was timed to coincide with the offical launch of Bradford's year as UK City of Culture.
The reopening was partial in the sense that the two major new galleries Sound and Vision are still being installed and will open in the summer, most likely in June, in time for the last few weeks of the school year and the summer holidays.
On Saturday I was at the head of a fifty-plus strong queue of families and others waiting to enter the museum. There was a second queue at the Pictureville entrance. The animation-themed day celebrated the work of the Aardman studios with screenings of Wallace and Gromit films and activities based around animation.
The revamped museum foyer is a more welcoming space. It is now less cluttered, with better visibility in to it from the outside, and with seating to encourage visitors to relax and linger. The visitor/ticketing desk is 'softer' than the previous desk and more inviting. The large media wall has gone. On the far side, to the right, is a quiet space, on the left a smaller retail space with more activity toys for children, some museum branded objects, and just a few books relating to the Hockney exhibition that opens on the 15th. The wider book offer of museum publications and general books on photography, film and television have gone. Beyond this is the café selling Costa coffee, snacks and meals. That is largely unchanged, and beyond that is the Pictureville cinema which had remained open for much of the museum's closure from June 2023. The IMAX cinema entrance remains accessible from the entrance foyer as before.
And on to the galleries... The Kodak Gallery (-1 level) remains largely unchanged - or, at least, only with minor tweaks and changes.As before, the reflex camera obscura and Giroux camera greet visitors on entry. The Jabez Hogg/Beard studio recreation and original daguerreotype remain, but some of the early photographic equipment has been removed to accommodate the new lift (the cause of the delayed reopening). As one walks through the Kodak gallery the previous wet-plate studio space has been repurposed recreating Bradford's important Belle Vue studio. Engaging with local communities is a theme that will run through all the galleries. The Victorian parlour, darkroom and studio office remains. The main part of the gallery looking at Kodak cameras and popular photography remains much as it was, although the early three-colour cinematographic camera has gone. Circulating through the beach and pier 
displays, salon photography and amateur cameras from the 1950s brings the visitor to the 1980s and on to the digital revolution. This remains the weakest part of the displays, mainly because it stops in the early 2000s and digital photography's cameras and the ways we share images have evolved significantly since then. The internet and digital displays previously in the foyer have not been brought back.
Insight, the museum's research and visitor object handling and collections-access space, and the Kraszna-Krausz room are beyond and remain closed, at least until the new galleries open.
Moving to the upper levels: level 1 retains the Cubby Broccoli cinema in which curators were showcasing the Sound and Vision galleries and showing off objects from the museum collections. Next to this is The Connection Engine (curiously missing from the museum signage, perhaps suggesting it is temporary?) which allows users to investigate Bradford's own history through an interactive screen. Alongside is a large digital display of objects that asks us to think about the future of history. The special exhibitions space remains closed for installation work.
Level 2 houses the special exhibiton space that opens with David Hockney: Pieced Together exhibition from 15 January until 18 May 2025.
On level 3 is a renewed Wonderlab with interactive exhibits for children and adults to learn about sound, vision and science. This level will also house new Sound and Vision galleries in due course. Level 4 is Makespace, a space primarily for school groups to undertake practical activities which on Saturday visitors were using to make animation figures. Levels 5 and 6 remain closed for Sound and Vision and Power Up galleries, respectively.
Saturday was a lively day, helped by a brass band, screenings and activities around the museum spaces, including object handling experiences and the making ghost photographs. Over the next few months the museum has an engaging offer for families and visitors. Some areas will be familiar, others less so. Listening in to conversations from visitors, who were mainly local, they seemed pleased to see the familiar parts of the museum return and Wonderlab was very popular. There was clearly a lot of affection for the museum. The improved spaces, ground floor toilets, and especially the foyer mark a real improvement for visitors. Museum volunteers were also pleased to be back and engaging with visitors.
Much of the £6 million spend has been on parts of the museum building fabric that will be less obvious to the public: fixing roof leaks, fire and safety upgrades, new flooring, and that troublesome new lift. The Pictureville link to the main museum will need further work in due course as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was discovered during the closure and needs to be dealt with. For now the space has been made safe.
The two new galleries which visitors will see and engage with have yet to open, but based on the partial re-opening, they promise much. That said, when they do open they will draw attention to the need to update the Kodak Gallery which is well beyond its originally projected lifespan - although it remains popular and is object heavily which visitors appreciate.
The introduction to the Sound and Vision galleries given by Head Curator Dr Charlotte Connelly on Saturday emphasised the new themes that will be behind the galleries (a short film will explain more). They will be worth waiting for. For the museum, embedded as part of the wider Science Museum Group it will be delivering on its remit of 'exploring the transformative impact of image and sound technologies on our lives', and engaging with local communities using local examples to do this.
See: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/
Sound and Vision project: https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/about-us/sound-and-vision-project
All images: © Michael Pritchard. Views from the newly re-opened museum spaces (more are available) and a portrait of Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Museum Director.
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