Graphics centre for Nottingham

A ú6m International Museum of Graphic Design is planned for Nottingham. A seven-storey city centre building has been promised for the project.

Nottingham Trent University is involved in the plan, and ú3m of European funding is being sought, to be matched by private sector sponsorship.

NTU graphic design course leader Mike Hope is driving the project forward with help from Icograda’s archive committee – a legacy of Willy de Majo.

De Majo’s archive is just one of the collections which could be stored and displayed at the canal-side museum, says Hope. And it was de Majo’s vision of an Icograda building which started the whole process, he adds.

Hope envisages a transformation of the empty former British Waterways Board building, which BWB is offering at a peppercorn rent. The seven floors total more than 13 000m2 and Hope envisages his course plus postgraduate courses using one floor; exhibitions and archives using two or more floors; a lecture theatre; a library; and a specialist bookshop.

Hope is applying for ú3m funding from the European Regional Development Fund. He says he is “confident” the sum can be matched from industry sponsors.

The Jenkins Group chairman Nick Jenkins, who has chaired the Icograda steering committee since de Majo’s death in 1993, says fundraising experts and architects are being consulted.

Jenkins says: “The museum would be unique. It would put the UK at the centre of graphic design worldwide.” The museum could open by September 1997.