Visitor Figures Surpass Annual Forecasts at Shetland Museum and Archives
The Shetland Museum and Archives has announced today (24th September) that visitor figures recorded for the first three months since opening have smashed through the annual forecasts made at the start of the project.
More than 37,000 visitors have walked through the doors of the Museum and Archives since it opened in June 2007 – a figure that surpasses both the number of yearly guests visiting the old museum (30,000) and the predicted figure of 35,000 who were expected to visit throughout the first year alone.
The £11.6m project, which was eight years in planning, tells Shetland’s fascinating story from its geological beginnings right up to the present day. Over 3,000 artefacts, a wealth of archival material and a mixture of traditional, contemporary and interactive displays all come together in the iconic building to sympathetically intertwine Shetland’s past with the present day.
Tommy Watt, Curator at the Shetland Museum and Archives, said: “It’s incredibly heartening to see that the Museum and Archives is already doing the job it set out to do – instantly becoming a social and cultural hub for the community and visitors alike. Feedback from our visitors has also been fantastic and we have welcomed people from a wide variety of countries – all of whom have been eager to learn and experience the rich history of Shetland.”
Already receiving recognition from the Scottish Executive as being a best practice example of high quality and sustainable architecture, the Shetland Museum and Archives is fast gaining international significance.
The building, with its 20 metre high Boat Hall, houses a range of treasures from the islands’ history including the old Bressay lighthouse optic and 1933 Singer Le Mans car, as well as new commissions, such as the recreated 18th century traditional Shetland house complete with a model of Shetland’s indigenous and now extinct pig. These sit alongside a range of public art and sound installations and the archives search room where the public can access written records of Shetland’s past from the fifteenth through to the twenty-first century.
Jimmy Moncrieff, General Manager at the Shetland Amenity Trust which manages the Shetland Museum and Archives says: “To surpass our predicted annual visitor figure in the first three months is more than any of us could ever have hoped. This is a credit not only to Shetland as a whole and the fascinating history of the islands’ depicted within the building, but also to the many people within our Trust who worked so hard to make the dream a reality.”