Museums to put revamp work out to tender before Olympics

The design industry is set to benefit from a boost in funding for Britain’s museums ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

The National Museums of Scotland is looking to make consultancy appointments to work on the £44.5m revamp of The Royal Museum.

It wants to create 7000m2 of new displays in 16 new spaces, upgrade galleries for foreign touring exhibitions, redevelop its learning and information centres and build new Discovery Zones. ‘We’ll put out a tender any moment to find designers and architects,’ says a spokeswoman.

The refurbishment, to start in two years’ time, last week received a £16.8m boost from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum was also awarded £9.7m to help transform its Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. It is selecting an ‘external graphic designer’ and will appoint interactive designers for the projects ‘probably next year’, says a spokeswoman.

The Museum of London also received £10m to revamp its ground floor galleries, build new exhibition space and update its learning centre. An in-house team is designing the 3D work, but there may be opportunities for consultancies in the future.

All the projects are scheduled for completion by 2012.