Friday, 27 September 2019
A world-exclusive exhibition that brought Chinese dinosaurs to the city of Nottingham has won an ‘excellence in exhibitions’ award.
The Dinosaurs of China exhibition developed by Nottingham City Council Museums Service working with the University of Nottingham received the Judges’ Special Award at the Regional Heritage Awards 2019.
Jason Feehily (University of Nottingham), Ron Inglis (Chief Operating Officer, Nottingham City Museums), Rachael Evans (Museums Development Manager), Wang Qi (University of Nottingham).
In 2017, more than 130,000 people visited the four-month display to see the rare skeletons and fossils localnever-before seen outside of Asia, which came about from pioneering research by Dr Wang Qi, an Assistant Professor in Architecture at the University of Nottingham.
Dinosaurs of China brought to life the story of how dinosaurs evolved into the birds that live alongside us today, adopting a new narrative-led approach to the design of a museum, informed by Dr Wang Qi’s research, instead of a traditionally chronological layout.
Based on Dr Wang Qi’s work, Nottingham’s Museum Service focused on curating the exhibition to make it accessible and engaging to the general public. The exhibition drew visitors from Europe and beyond, with 75 schools visiting and taking part in activities designed to inspire an interest in science and scientific research. The accompanying engagement programme, which included science lectures and Q&A sessions, saw 28,000 people take part.
This was an amazing exhibition which brought many skeletons and fossils to UK and Europe for the first time. The centre piece of the exhibition being the magnificent Mamenchisaurus which was the tallest skeleton ever displayed in the UK. The development of the exhibition took a massive amount of work and collaboration which was rewarded with large number of visitors how came to see this exhibition in Nottingham.
The Dinosaurs of China is a wonderful example of collaborative working with Nottingham City Museums Service, Lakeside Arts, the Asia Business Centre, Nottingham Confucius Institute and our China partners the Beijing Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology; and the Long Hao Institute of Geology and Palaeontology. Dinosaurs of China is a success story for our city, raising Nottingham's profile and enhancing the local tourism economy.
The Regional Heritage Awards celebrate the extraordinary and excellent work that is taking place in heritage organisations throughout the East Midlands.
The awards were judged by Dr Abi Hunt, Head of Department (Marketing and Tourism) at the University of Lincoln; Chris Keady, Head of Collections, Learning and Participation and Interim Museum Manager at Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust and Katt Hanson, a Masters student on the Museum and Heritage Development course at Nottingham Trent University.
Story credits
Dr Wang Qi, who specialises in exhibition and museum design, spent four years working with colleagues from across the University; Nottingham City Council; Beijing Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology; and the Long Hao Institute of Geology and Palaeontology to bring the idea to life.
For more information contact Jane Barton at Nottingham City Council on 0115 8761222 jane.barton@nottinghamcity.gov.uk or Emma Thorne in the Press Office at The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 74 84734 emma.thorne@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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