If life gives you lemons, ask your mates to have a whip round, buy a bottle of gin, and make it an opportunity. So seems to be the thinking at Jorvik Viking Centre, who are turning their recent flooding into a chance to " make the JORVIK experience bigger and better", with an ambitious fundraising campaign alongside their insurance payout. ![]() York was pretty battered by flooding in late 2015, and as the key feature of Jorvik is that you're at the Viking level of the city, underneath the modern day level, they had a meter of water to deal with in places. Their disaster plan meant all of the museum artifacts are safe, but the venue itself is planned to be closed until early 2017. #CampaignCanute has been launched, aiming to raise £2 million so that rather than just rebuild Yorvik as was "...we can do it even better than before...” in the words of chief executive, David Jennings. It's made clear that the appeal is for money to work alongside the insurance money, which is refreshingly honest when vague language could make the donations sound like a desperate and necessary appeal for aid. It's a fantastic idea, and either one they had waiting in the wings (York floods a fair bit, so they many have expected this opportunity to come up sooner or later) or shows an unparalleled level of opportunism and action. It's a bold plan, to raise the money, and complete the work, all in a year, but Yorvik has a lot on it's side. Yorvik is a world known attraction, and £4500 of donations were made before this campaign was even announced or launched- just from well-wishers. #CampaignCanute was launched right at the start of 2016's annual Jorvik Viking Festival, a smart move while there are an estimated 40,000 extra Viking fans visiting the city. The timing is perfect to make the appeal, although I suspect it's been a rush behind the scenes from flooding, to idea, to approval, to plan, to launch! It's ambitious, but with the kind of pulling power that Yorvik possesses, it's plausible. If you want to donate, you can do so here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Webcomic and occasional blog about the heritage sector. Follow The Attendant:Topics
All
AuthorAll text and images are produced by and copyright of the artist, holder of the domain name of attendantsview.com Archives
February 2023
|