Feature: Centres of attention part two: exploring At-Bristol
17 August 2010. By Chrissie Giles
When At-Bristol opened in 2000, Dr Goery Delacote was Executive Director of the Exploratorium, San Francisco, voted the best science centre in the world in 2005. That year, he relocated to Europe and took up the position of Chief Executive at At-Bristol.
On his arrival in Bristol, it soon became clear that the centre's financial model was not viable, and Goery began fundraising. "In the US we could raise £1.5 million in one evening - but the UK is not the US, it was much more difficult." In order for At-Bristol to survive, two parts of it - the ecology centre Wildwalk and the IMAX cinema - were closed in 2007.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he's a vocal critic of the lack of government funding. "It is absolutely not normal that taxpayers' money doesn't go towards science centres," Goery says. "I'm very critical of the government but that's a fight I have lost so far, and I don't think it will improve."
Improving education
Aside from securing the financial sustainability of the centre, what are his ambitions for its future? "The bottom line is to improve science education, improve public engagement and provide a public platform for debates about the development of science and technology - not just in Bristol, but the whole country."
Science centres place an emphasis on enabling their visitors to interact with exhibits and test theories themselves. Just like Linda Conlon, CEO of the Centre for Life, Newcastle - subject of the first feature in this series - Goery speaks a lot about the importance of interactive exhibitions: "It's a very simple idea, but to help people learn, you've got to get people to ask 'how come?'"
"When I arrived at At-Bristol, there was no capacity to design exhibits and interactives in-house, so I moved fast to bring the best people in the country to come and work here. It's not a large place - I'm not interested in a monstrous organisation - but we're very able and agile and can do testing and development here."
Hands-on learning
The first interactive exhibition he oversaw at At-Bristol was Inside DNA, which was supported by a £1.5 million Wellcome Trust Capital Award. Having opened in Bristol in late 2007, the exhibition will continue to tour the UK until 2013. "Being about DNA and genetics, this is not an 'easy' exhibition, but I think it's having an important impact," he says, explaining how a chaplain from the cathedral next door came to see the exhibition, and was so struck by its depth that he took away some of the examples to use in his own preaching. "It's human in the deepest sense," he adds.
To increase the people his centre can reach, Goery's working on more ways to take the inside out. He and colleagues have been working on miniaturising a number of exhibits to make them portable and affordable for teachers to use. Bristol is uniquely placed for testing such exhibits, as it's the only science centre in the UK to incorporate a Science Learning Centre, where science teachers come to develop their skills.
"A nation's science learning relies on schools and colleges, but also science centres, and we can't have one without another," says Goery. "While some charitable foundations don't understand this, I'm very grateful that the Wellcome Trust does."
The Wellcome Trust supported the building of: At-Bristol, Birmingham Thinktank, Dundee Sensation, Glasgow Science Centre, and the Centre for Life, Newcastle. See more on the Public Engagement Capital Awards made.
A brief history of At-Bristol
At-Bristol opened in 2000, and has welcomed some 4 million visitors since. The centre's permanent collection includes over 300 interactive exhibits, and there is an exhibit maintenance and development workshop on-site. It is the only science centre in the UK to incorporate a Science Learning Centre, where teachers go for professional development. The Wellcome Trust gave £3.05 million towards the opening of At-Bristol, which was also supported through the ReDiscover fund. Dr Goery Delacote took over as CEO there in 2005.
See also
- Centres of attention: Centre for Life, Newcastle
- Public Engagement Capital Awards
- Wellcome Trust Enquiry into Science and Discovery Centres (2007) [PDF]
- Inside DNA
- ReDiscover grants awarded round 4 [PDF]
- ReDiscover grants awarded round 3 [PDF]
Top image: At-Bristol exterior view.
