National Media Museum refocuses on science as name change mooted

The National Media Museum in Bradford has announced plans to move away from the arts and to concentrate on
science and technology.

The museum is also understood to be considering changing its name, a move that might see it lose its ‘national’ label. A spokesman confirmed the museum was reviewing its name to assess the best way to reflect the change of focus, but would not be drawn on whether one of the names in the running was Science Museum North.

The museum will develop a gallery on the technology of light and sound with £1.5 million awarded from its managing body the Science Museum Group. The change in the museum’s focus will also see it lose more than 400,000 objects from its collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This includes the Royal Photographic Society collection, which charts the invention and development of photography in the last two centuries.