FOR Aberdeen Science Centre chief executive Bryan Snelling the aim is clear – make it a five-star visitor attraction for the Granite City.
The doors have newly-reopened at the Tramsheds on Constitution Street following a £6 million refurbishment.
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Now Bryan and his team have their sight set on making ASC one of the top places to visit.
Currently Aberdeen City has two with the prestigious five, awarded by VisitScotland – the Gordon Highlanders Museum and Aberdeen Sports Village.
However for Bryan, who has been at ASC for a year, he believes it’s a must for more attractions in the city to reach the top ratings.
He said: “My aim is to become at least the second five-star visitor attraction in Aberdeen city. I am passionate about the fact that there is only one at the moment.
“What I mean is that there should be more than one in the city. Yes it has got another five star attraction with the Sports Village but that’s a sporting arena.
“I want ASC to be the next five-star visitor attraction and I’d love to see other places follow and achieve the same.
“I think only having one is awful because Aberdeenshire has numerous ones. In the city we need to up our game a bit.”
Before moving to ASC Bryan spent five years as chief executive at The Gordon Highlanders Museum.
During his time there he achieved many things he was proud of including seeing the museum climb up ratings, making and retaining its five-star attraction status, kicking off a hugely successful £300,000 fundraising campaign and receiving an award for the replica WW1 outdoor Moffat Trench.
Bryan said: “I loved every minute of it. It was great. It was a small staff team but there were hundreds of volunteers throughout the place which was wonderful.
“Unfortunately soon after I started the oil crisis kicked in and affected Aberdeen a lot. I was really pleased at how we went about trying to get our fundraising campaign going.
“We managed to hit our target through the support and graciousness of people across the city and North-east. It was fantastic to see the amount of passion and love for the museum.
“One person said they took away our regiment but they are not taking away our museum. And that epitomises it.
“But my swansong, and it really was as we won an award on my last day there was the WW1 trench. It was an idea I had about two and half years before I left. We needed something to represent the trenches. We wanted something people could touch and experience. I was so pleased with it.”
The opening of ASC was delayed for around six months due to the impact of Covid-19.
Bryan said: “Coronavirus hit us as well as everybody else.
“It stopped construction of the redevelopment. It’s been a shame, timing wasn’t perfect for us. We were only five or six weeks away from having the building handed over to us in March and it was actually five or six months later we got it. But better late than never. Since I’ve been here it’s been fantastic, the staff are great.”
ASC, formerly known as Satrosphere, first opened in 1988 and was housed in Justice Mill Lane, before its rebrand in 2016.
Bryan is in no doubt as to just how popular an attraction it is in the Granite City by many different generations.
He said: “It’s a very well loved and cherished part of Aberdeen. Simlilar to the Gordon Highlander Museum.
“Everybody mentions the sheep. I’ve been told it may well be the oldest working science exhibit in Scotland, if not the UK. We think it was built around 1974 for the Rowett Institute at the time. It’s a question that everyone still asks me.
“Whoever gets rid in the future I wouldn’t want to be them.”
The centre has been completely modernised to create an aspirational science centre which reflects the STEM priorities for both industry and education.
More than 60 new interactive exhibits over two floors await visitors, including The OPITO Theatre of Energy – the UK’s first immersive experience of its kind – and RoboThespian, a chatty humanoid robot sponsored by the centre’s Digital Futures Partner, Equinor.
The exhibits are aimed at all ages and are themed into six new zones: Energy; Space; Life Sciences; Make It, Test It; and a special area for the under-6s, as well as the Shell Learning Zone, where science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are brought to life.
For Bryan it’s important to make a visit to ASC fun and encourage children to want to learn.
He said: “We are looking at how we will develop and evolve and it will happen.
“We are trying to make science and the stem subjects fun. When you are in school it’s a different way of teaching.
“If you come in to the science centre you get a hands on experience. We try and inspire the next generation in effect by peaking their curiosity. But it has to be fun and enjoyable because if it’s not you’ll turn them off immediately.
“Our core belief is inspiring the scientists of the future through making it enjoyable.”
