National Museum Cardiff to host Dippy on Tour

Dippy, the Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast, is travelling the length and the breadth of the UK, visiting Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and five regions across England. The new venue in Cardiff will be National Museum Cardiff.

Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales has been working in partnership with the Senedd, the main public building of the National Assembly for Wales, to bring Dippy to Wales since 2016.

Initially the Senedd was to be the Cardiff host for Dippy but following discussions, and in conjunction with the Natural History Museum, it has been agreed that National Museum Cardiff is the right home for Dippy during the Welsh leg of his UK tour.

Director General, Amgueddfa Cymru David Anderson, says: “We are delighted to be hosting Dippy and look forward to giving him a warm Welsh welcome. Visitors to National Museum Cardiff will be able to marvel at Dippy and take the opportunity to meet his cousins in our natural history galleries, taking a journey from the very beginnings of time to the present day.  They can explore how Wales evolved, coming face to face with dinosaurs and other amazing animals along the way.”

The Llywydd, Elin Jones, Assembly Member says: “The Commission is fully supportive of Dippy moving to National Museum Cardiff. Housing him there will provide thousands of visitors of all ages with fantastic opportunities to discover how the Welsh environment and life evolved in Wales when Dippy roamed the land. I look forward to seeing him there in all his Jurassic glory."

Dippy is currently resident at Dorset County Museum where he has welcomed more than 125,000 visitors to date, outstripping all expectations.

Each tour partner venue is using Dippy’s visit to showcase their local nature and natural history collections, forging new partnerships between regional cultural, scientific and wildlife organisations. The Jurassic Coast Trust is joint host in Dorset where the Trust has helped more than 15,000 people adventure outside to enjoy their own natural history adventures.

The Natural History Museum’s Head of National Public Programmes, Exhibitions, Learning and Outreach, Katrina Nilsson, says: “We are grateful for all support provided by the Senedd and are delighted to be working with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales to ensure Dippy can be seen in Cardiff. We wanted to make sure we could share Dippy with each nation and it is exciting to think he will be in Wales next year where a new dinosaur cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, the first meat-eating dinosaur ever found in the country, was discovered just three years ago.”

The dates for Dippy’s stay in Cardiff remain unchanged: Dippy on Tour will be at National Museum Cardiff from October 19, 2019 until January 26, 2020.

Never before on public display outside of the Natural History Museum, Dippy has delighted visitors since he arrived in London in 1905. The full skeleton in its displayed pose is an impressive 21.3 metres long, 4.3 metres wide and 4.17 metres high.  

The British icon is on a mission to inspire five million natural history adventures, encouraging families and schools to explore nature on their doorstep.

Dippy on Tour has been brought about by the Natural History Museum, in partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation and supported by Dell EMC and Williams & Hill, working with partners UK wide to tour one of its most iconic exhibits over three years, with the aim of inspiring 1.5 million people to delve into natural history and think about the world around us. 

The tour includes the following venues, in chronological order:

• Dorset County Museum, 10 February - 7 May 2018
• Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 26 May - 9 September 2018
• Ulster Museum, 28 September 2018 - 6 January 2019
  
• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, 22 January - 5 May 2019
• Great North Museum, Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, 18 May - 6 October 2019
• National Museum Cardiff, 19 October 2019 - 26 January 2020
• Number One Riverside, Rochdale, 10 February - 28 June 2020
• Norwich Cathedral, 11 July - 31 October 2020

Dinosaur fans who are not able to see Dippy in person can follow his journey by keeping an eye on @DippyonTour on Twitter and the Natural History Museum and tour partner social media feeds as well as and visiting our website.

#DippyonTour
#NaturalHistoryAdventure

Ends

Press contacts

Natural History Museum: Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk

National Museum Cardiff: 029 2057 3175 lleucu.cooke@museumwales.ac.uk

National Assembly for Wales: 0300 200 7847 news@assembly.wales

Notes for editors

Images of Dippy in Dorset: Please download and credit: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

The Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum exists to inspire a love of the natural world and unlock answers to the big issues facing humanity and the planet. It is a world-leading science research centre, and through its unique collection and unrivalled expertise it is tackling issues such as food security, eradicating diseases and managing resource scarcity.

The Natural History Museum is the most visited natural history museum in Europe and the top science attraction in the UK; we welcome more than 4.5 million visitors each year and our website receives over 500,000 unique visitors a month. People come from around the world to enjoy our galleries and events and engage both in-person and online with our science and educational activities through innovative programmes and citizen science projects.

In partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation

Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2018, the Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded charitable grant-making foundation which supports causes across the UK with grants totalling over £60million each year. 2018 also marks its £1billionth donation since it was established.

One of the largest and most respected charitable institutions in the UK, the Weston Family Trustees are descendants of the founder and they take a highly active and hands-on approach. The Foundation’s funding comes from an endowment of shares in the family business which includes Twinings, Primark, Kingsmill (all part of Associated British Foods Plc) and Fortnum & Mason amongst others - a successful model that still endures today; as the businesses have grown so too have the charitable donations.

From small community organisations to large national institutions, the Foundation supports a broad range of charities and activities that make a positive impact in the communities in which they work. Over 1,500 charities across the UK benefit each year from the Foundation’s grants.

Tour sponsors

Dell EMC, a part of Dell Technologies, enables organizations to modernize, automate and transform their data center using industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage and data protection technologies. This provides a trusted foundation for businesses to transform IT, through the creation of a hybrid cloud, and transform their business through the creation of cloud-native applications and big data solutions. As a supplier of the Natural History Museum, Dell EMC technology has supported the work of its scientists for many years.

Through Dippy on Tour, Dell EMC and the Natural History Museum have the opportunity to inspire the next generation of scientists and encourage them to engage with the natural world. The digital world has a huge role to play in this, by providing online and mobile technology that allows people to explore the outside world.

Williams & Hill have built up a reputation for excellence by firmly establishing themselves as the leading ‘Specialised Transporter of Fine Art, Antiques, Design Furniture and Decorative Objects’. With a highly experienced team working for the world’s major galleries and exhibition venues – they have a true understanding of the requirements for methodical care, consideration and appreciation of whatever may be in their care. No two days are the same, and the excitement of working in their own ever changing art gallery never fades. williamsandhill.com

Tour venues and partners

• Dorset County Museum is one of the leading independent, charitable, heritage organisations in the Southwest of England. It has a learned Society with 2000 members and receives over 47,000 visitors a year. Its diverse collections contain over 4 million objects including internationally significant geology, archaeology and literary collections. The Museum is a registered charity and operates independently with financial support from Dorset County Council and West Dorset District Council. In May 2015 the Museum was awarded £9.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable an ambitious redevelopment project. dorsetcountymuseum.org

• The Jurassic Coast was designated a World Heritage Site in 2001. Day to day site management, and delivery of the Management Plan, is the work of the Jurassic Coast Team, supported in the main by Dorset and Devon County Councils, and the Jurassic Coast Trust, the charity which funds and inspires conservation, understanding and community engagement. jurassiccoast.org

• Birmingham Museums Trust is an independent charity that manages the city’s museum collection and venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council. It uses the collection of around 800,000 objects to provide a wide range of arts, cultural and historical experiences, events and activities that deliver accessible learning, creativity and enjoyment for citizens and visitors to the city. Attracting over one million visits a year, the Trust’s venues include Aston Hall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Blakesley Hall, Museum Collections Centre, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Sarehole Mill, Soho House, Thinktank and Weoley Castle. birminghammuseums.org.uk

• Come face to face with dinosaurs, meet an Ancient Egyptian Mummy and see modern masterpieces with a visit to the Ulster Museum. As Northern Ireland’s treasure house of the past and present, the museum is home to a rich collection of art, history and natural sciences and free to all visitors. The Ulster Museum, part of National Museums Northern Ireland, welcomes nearly half a million visitors annually. nmni.com/um

• Glasgow Life is the charity which runs services and facilities on behalf of Glasgow City Council. We work in every area of the city and with every community to try and inspire Glasgow’s citizens and visitors to lead richer and more active lives through culture, sport and learning. More than 18 million attendances were recorded to the facilities that we run across the city between 2015 and 2016. Glasgow Museums is the largest museum service in the UK outside London and operates nine easy to reach, accessible and family friendly venues across the city. We are open year-round and entry is free. Glasgow Museums house an extraordinary permanent collection of fine art, historic objects and natural history exhibited in some of Glasgow’s most stunning public buildings. glasgowlife.org.uk

• Great North Museum: Hancock is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University. The Museum brings together the North East’s premier collections of archaeology, natural history, geology and world cultures under one roof. It incorporates collections from the original Hancock Museum, Newcastle University’s former Museum of Antiquities and the Shefton Museum. The Great North Museum is a partnership between Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (SANT). greatnorthmuseum.org.uk

• Situated in the heart of Cardiff’s elegant civic centre, National Museum Cardiff houses Wales’s national art, geology and natural history collections as well as major touring and temporary exhibitions. On the ground floor of the museum, take an amazing journey in The Evolution of Wales from the very beginnings of time to the present day. The story begins in space with the Big Bang and takes you on a 4,600 million-year journey, bringing you face to face with dinosaurs and woolly mammoths along the way. Witness Wales's diverse natural history on an expedition that begins at the seashore and ends in the mountains. Experience some of the unique environments that make Wales home to over 900 Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The art collection at National Museum Cardiff is one of Europe's finest and includes five hundred years of magnificent paintings, drawings, sculpture, silver and ceramics from Wales and across the world, including one of Europe's best collections of Impressionist art.

• Rochdale Borough Council is a local authority in the North West of England which serves more than 200,000 residents. Sitting in the foothills of the Pennines and close to the major cities of Manchester and Leeds, the council is playing a key role in the Northern Powerhouse, and its priorities are people, place and prosperity. Link4Life is the Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust, delivering leisure and cultural provision across the Rochdale borough, including the award-winning arts and heritage centre, Touchstones Rochdale. rochdale.gov.uk

• Norwich Cathedral is a Christian presence in the heart of Norfolk and the Diocese of Norwich. It began, over 900 years ago, as the Cathedral church of a Benedictine Monastery, built to inspire by its sheer size and magnificence. The Cathedral continues to fill today’s visitors with a sense of awe and wonder. The primary purpose of a Cathedral is to be a place of Christian worship. It was at the centre of the monastery and the focus of the monks’ most important work, the worship of God. Norwich Cathedral is also the focus of both city and county life. As well as playing host to special civic and legal services, it is also a venue for concerts, talks, exhibitions, degree ceremonies and other community events. cathedral.org.uk