| We The Curious | |
|---|---|
 We The Curious, showingExplore to the right, and the Planetarium, within the large stainless-steel sphere and in the foreground aSpace Signpost | |
  Location within Bristol | |
| Former names | at@bristol |
| General information | |
| Type | Science Centre |
| Location | Canon's Wharf,Bristol,England |
| Coordinates | 51°27′03″N2°35′55″W / 51.45085°N 2.59861°W /51.45085; -2.59861 |
| Opened | 2000 (will reopen in 2024) |
| Closed | 2023 |
| Destroyed | 2022 (partially) |
| Website | |
| Official We The Curious Site | |
We The Curious (previouslyAt-Bristol or "@Bristol") is ascience and arts centre andeducational charity inBristol,England. It features over 250 interactive exhibits over two floors, and members of the public and school groups can also engage with the Live Science Team over programming in the kitchen, studio and on live lab. We The Curious is also home of the United Kingdom's first 3Dplanetarium. The centre describes its aim as being "to create a culture of curiosity".[1]
As part of its charitable status, We The Curious has an extensive community engagement programme.[2] In regular weekends throughout the year We The Curious hosts "Hello!" weekends for communities who are currently under-represented in their visitors while also providing a community membership for charities and groups working in and for the community. Alongside this, We The Curious is working with local schools and community groups to plan exhibits and programming for the future.
The centre was closed for over two years following a fire and consequent water damage in 2022, but reopened on 2 July 2024.
At-Bristol opened in 2000 as the successor to theExploratory, a sciencemuseum and demonstration centre, founded byRichard Gregory[3] in the former terminustrain shed atBristol Temple Meads railway station (later home to theBritish Empire & Commonwealth Museum). The Exploratory was a separate organisation and none of the exhibits or staff were transferred when Bristol's new museum opened in a city centre site as part of the regeneration of the historicalFloating Harbour. The project was funded with £44.3 million from theNational Lottery,Millennium Commission, South West of EnglandRegional Development Agency, and a further £43.4 million from commercial partners (including a controversial donation fromNestlé) and Bristol City Council. The selection and design of exhibits were criticised by Gregory and other scientific adviser as being "totally inappropriate to the spirit of science".[4]Goéry Delacôte served as Chief Executive from 2005 until 2012.[5][6][7]
The centre is situated on the formerCanon's Wharf.Wildwalk and theIMAXcinema occupied a modified 19th century former lead-works building,[8] andExplore occupied a 1906 railwaygoods shed measuring 540 by 133 ft (165 by 41 m).[9] The goods shed was one of the first buildings to usereinforced concrete and both buildings areGrade II listed buildings. The buildings are located aroundMillennium Square – also part of the regeneration — andPero's Bridge, a footbridge across the harbour which links it to theArnolfiniart gallery,Bristol Industrial Museum andQueen Square.
At its opening the centre consisted ofExplore, a more traditional style hands-on science centre, which contained features onmechanics, sound and light,computer science,space and thehuman brain;Wildwalk, a biodiversity centre showcasing life on earth through a mix of live animals and plants, multimedia footage and exhibits and hands-on activities, including an artificialrainforest,aquariums and otherecology-related exhibits; and anIMAX theatre.
Wildwalk and theIMAX Theatre closed in 2007.[10][11] Despite At-Bristol's insistence that the government should have supported Wildwalk,[12] the science centres that were established by the Millennium Commission in 2000 were intended to be self-financing once established.[13] This proved difficult for some of the 18 centres established in 2000, with The Earth Centre, Big Idea and Wildwalk all closing within 10 years.
Though the charity had no problems securing short term funds and grants when the centre was set up, enabling them to run the three attractions for just over six years, by 2005-06 most of these had decreased or ended.[14] This left two options: close the whole centre, or closeWildwalk and IMAX, enabling funds to be channelled exclusively toExplore. AsExplore was more popular with visitors, andWildwalk and the IMAX theatre were more expensive to run, it was decided that the second option was viable.[10]Wildwalk and the IMAX theatre closed for the last time on 31 March 2007,[15] making 45 people redundant.[12]
TheRegional Development Agency worked with Bristol City Council to find new uses for the buildings,[10] with theUniversity of the West of England expressing an interest in using them for public outreach work with schools.[16] In 2008,Blue Reef Aquarium took on the buildings for an aquarium and events space, which opened in October 2009.[17]
Explore rebranded to At-Bristol in June 2010. Since opening in 2000, At-Bristol had had an annual operating deficit of around £1.5 million to be filled by fundraising.[10]
In September 2017, At-Bristol reopened as We The Curious, with a new mission to "create a culture of curiosity", in response to a consultation showing that the previous mission to "make science accessible to all" was no longer unique.[1] Testing showed that the audience wanted the centre to be more challenging, to feature art as well as science and to be more inclusive. A new manifesto was produced in response to these themes, and the over 400 new names were considered before deciding on We The Curious. The name was tested with members, focus groups, volunteers and staff and it tested at 92% positive.[18] We The Curious is currently working on Project What If, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of the Inspiring Science fund along with 16 other generous funders. We The Curious is currently run by a team of over 140 part-time and full-time staff, led by Donna Speed as chief executive officer.
On 9 April 2022 an electrical fire broke out of the building's roof after birds damaged a solar panel.[19]The centre was evacuated and part of Anchor Road closed.[20][21] Although the fire was extinguished within an hour, the water used for firefighting caused extensive damage to the upper floors of the building.[22] After more than two years of repairs, the centre reopened on 2 July 2024.[19]
The exhibitions are themed into various areas, some of which are permanent features, others change on a periodic basis. The ground floor of We The Curious is being re-fitted with brand new exhibits in 2020.
We The Curious has its own exhibition workshop on site. Many of the interactive exhibits on the exhibition floor have been made by the workshop team in house, including the distinctive 'Hamster wheel' of the 'Wet Move-it' exhibition.
We The Curious is housed in a formerrailwaygoods shed, which was renovated to house the centre. The renovations included the addition of a large glass atrium to the North of the building, and stainless-steel sphere to the south, housing theplanetarium. The architect behind the renovation wasChris Wilkinson.[24]
The building includes aeutectic tank, which is a 10 metres (33 ft) high transparent tube filled with thousands of balls containingeutectic salts. As the temperature within the building rises, the crystals within the balls melt, taking in the heat and cooling the building. As the building cools, the salts crystallise again, giving out heat. In this way, the tank helps keep the temperature within the centre constant.[25]
As an educational charity, We The Curious fundraises to fulfil their vision 'to create a culture of curiosity'. This work includes specific inclusion projects, outreach work to groups who are unable to visit We The Curious, and bringing hard to reach groups to We The Curious. These groups include community groups, low-income schools and hospitals. Much of this work is made possible by the work of volunteers who have been part of We The Curious since 2006[27] We The Curious has also recently embarked on a career ladder scheme with partnership school City Academy.
There are rooms and roof terraces above the exhibition space that are used for private hire. These have been used by organisations such asSky News, theBBC and FameLab as well as other conferences, meetings and events.[28] These spaces have also been used for weddings and civil partnerships. We The Curious also hires out the exhibition floor, Planetarium,Millennium Square and Anchor Square.
Since its inceptionsustainability has been a key part of the We The Curious project.[29] The We The Curious building (formerly Explore and At-Bristol) is an example of low-energy design with aphase-change storage tank enablingair source heat pumps to heat and cool the building using only night surplus electricity.[30]
At-Bristol (as the centre was then known) joined the10:10 project in 2010 in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint. One year later they announced that they had reduced their carbon emissions (according to 10:10's criteria) by 12%.[31]
Since 2010 We The Curious has been on an intense sustainability drive to improve its performance in all areas of sustainability whilst also ensuring that the subject is included in its educational and promotional work.[32] In 2011 At-Bristol was awarded a Gold Green Tourism Award[33] and a West of England Carbon Champions Carbon Champion Award[34] and in 2012 a Silver South West Sustainable Tourism Award.[35]
March 2012 also saw At-Bristol's environmental performance being improved further with the installation of a 50-kilowatt peak solarphotovoltaic array to produce electricity for the building from the sun.[36]
We The Curious now has 'Strive for Sustainable futures' as one of the core pillars of its manifesto, and is constantly reviewing its environmental impact in order to try to becomecarbon neutral in line with the Bristol One City Plan. Part of this is to use the platforms available to educate the public about pressing environmental concerns, such as supporting sustainablepalm oil and reducing air pollution.
At-Bristol Michael Hopkins.
