The Maritime Culture Centre – a new branch of the Polish Maritime Museum

Soon construction work will begin on a modern museum facility – the Maritime Culture Centre. It will be the next branch of the Polish Maritime Museum. The new building will be built where at present the Colonial Warehouse is located, next to the Crane. The design of the modern building is in keeping with the historical buildings surrounding it. Although the walls and ceilings of the interior are to be partly made of glass, the building of the Maritime Culture Centre will blend in with other buildings along Długie Pobrzeże of the Gdańsk Old Town.

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The museum shall pursue a variety of objectives in the Centre in the field of education, exhibition and services. The mission of the Centre shall be to preserve and promote knowledge about cultural maritime heritage. Many attractive programme projects have been developed, and they will bring new quality to the maritime education process and to the protection of maritime historical objects.

Inside the building there will be space for permanent exhibitions: “People – Boats – Ports”, “Boats from All Over the World” and temporary exhibitions. The Centre will host educational workshops and museum lessons, and also conservation and underwater archaeology workshops. Visitors will have an opportunity to take active part in the conservation work. Many new technologies will be used at the Museum, such as multimedia, interactive information tools, original audiovisual presentations and computer visualisations.

The value of the project is estimated around 50 million PLN. The project, known under the title “Redevelopment and expansion of the cultural infrastructure of the Polish Maritime Museum in Gdańsk for the purposes of the Maritime Culture Centre”, is to be financed under the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism (EEA FM), and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Museum’s budget and the City of Gdańsk. The opening of the new facility is planned for spring 2011.

[This information is copied from Central Maritime Museum]