Newcastle’s Discovery Museum awarded £193,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund
“We’d like to say thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and all Lottery players for supporting this development which will improve the museum experience for our visitors.”
Discovery Museum in Newcastle has been awarded £193,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to develop a new flexible space to host high profile temporary exhibitions.
Keith Merrin, Director of North East Museums said:
“We know how important it is to keep the visitor offer fresh and interesting. These funds will allow us to create a new flexible space that will enable us to deliver more high-quality exhibitions, experiences and events.
“We’d like to say thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and all Lottery players for supporting this development which will improve the museum experience for our visitors.”
“We’re thrilled to support the Discovery Museum in their aim to improve the visitor experience through the creation of a new flexible space, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players."
Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“We’re thrilled to support the Discovery Museum in their aim to improve the visitor experience through the creation of a new flexible space, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players.
"It’s great news that the transformation of the spaces will allow the museum to share more of their wonderful collection and host more exciting exhibitions in the North East.”
“We’re really excited to be able to start this process – the first exhibition in the new space will be a family exhibition called Things That Go in summer 2026.”
Kylea Little, Keeper of History at Discovery Museum said:
“The current temporary exhibition space is not suitable for the scale of exhibitions we hope to provide for our visitors. In recent years we have had the first ever touring exhibition from The National Archives and we want to deliver higher profile exhibitions with our national museum partners, like the Science Museum, as well as showcasing Discovery Museum’s world-class collections, some of which may never have been displayed before.”
“We’re really excited to be able to start this process – the first exhibition in the new space will be a family exhibition called Things That Go in summer 2026.”
Discovery Museum tells the story of Tyneside and showcases world-class collections in a large Victorian building, once the headquarters of the Cooperative Wholesale Society (CWS).
Displays range from Joseph Swan’s first commercial lightbulb and Turbinia – once the fastest ship in the world and the first steam-turbine powered ship made on the River Tyne - to Tiny Tyneside, a new play space for under 5s and the hugely popular hands-on Science Maze.
With a programme of events and exhibitions from young families through to adults, Discovery Museum is an impressive space with three floors of permanent galleries and always has free entry.
