We The Curious (previously At-Bristol or "@Bristol") is a science and arts centre and educational charity in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. 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 3D

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

. The centre describes its aim as being "to create a culture of curiosity". As part of its charitable status, We The Curious has an extensive community engagement programme. 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.

History

Background and origins

At-Bristol opened in 2000 as the successor to the '' Exploratory'', a science

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and demonstration centre, founded by

Richard Gregory Richard Langton Gregory, (24 July 1923 – 17 May 2010) was a British psychologist and Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol. Life and career Richard Gregory was born in London. He was the son of Christopher Clive Lan ...

in the former terminus

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

Bristol Temple Meads railway station Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city ...

(later home to the British 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 historical

Floating Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out p ...

. The project was funded with £44.3 million from the National Lottery,

Millennium Commission The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...

, South West of England

Regional Development Agency In the United Kingdom, regional development agencies (RDAs) were nine non-departmental public body, non-departmental public bodies established for the purpose of development, primarily economic, of England's Government Offices for the English R ...

, and a further £43.4 million from commercial partners (including a controversial donation from

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

) 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".

Goéry Delacôte Goéry Delacôte, ''Légion d'honneur'', is a French theoretical physicist and science educator. He has been involved with the direction of science centres in Europe and the United States. He was instrumental in establishing the Cité des Scienc ...

served as Chief Executive from 2005 until 2012. The centre is situated on the former Canon's Wharf. ''Wildwalk'' and the

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

cinema occupied a modified 19th century former lead-works building, and ''Explore'' occupied a 1906 railway

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, althou ...

measuring . The goods shed was one of the first buildings to use

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

and both buildings are

Grade II listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The buildings are located around

Millennium Square Millennium Square may refer to: *Millennium Square, Bristol *Millennium Square, Leeds *Millennium Square, Sheffield {{dab ...

– also part of the regeneration — and Pero's Bridge, a footbridge across the harbour which links it to the Arnolfini

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

, Bristol Industrial Museum and Queen Square. At its opening the centre consisted of ''Explore'', a more traditional style hands-on science centre, which contained features on

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

, sound and light,

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

and the

human brain The human brain is the central organ (anatomy), organ of the nervous system, and with the spinal cord, comprises the central nervous system. It consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. The brain controls most of the activi ...

; ''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 artificial

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

aquariums An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

and other

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

-related exhibits; and an IMAX theatre.

Closure of Wildwalk and IMAX

''Wildwalk'' and the IMAX Theatre closed in 2007. Despite At-Bristol's insistence that the government should have supported Wildwalk, the science centres that were established by the Millennium Commission in 2000 were intended to be self-financing once established. 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. This left two options: close the whole centre, or close ''Wildwalk'' and IMAX, enabling funds to be channelled exclusively to ''Explore''. As ''Explore'' was more popular with visitors, and ''Wildwalk'' and the IMAX theatre were more expensive to run, it was decided that the second option was viable. ''Wildwalk'' and the IMAX theatre closed for the last time on 31 March 2007, making 45 people redundant. At Bristol 01

The

worked with Bristol City Council to find new uses for the buildings, with the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a Public university, public research university, located in and around Bristol, England, UK. With more than 39,912 students and 4,300 staff, it is the largest provider of hi ...

expressing an interest in using them for public outreach work with schools. In 2008, Blue Reef Aquarium took on the buildings for an aquarium and events space, which opened in October 2009.

2010–2017

''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.

Rebrand as We The Curious

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. 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. 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.

2022 fire

On 9 April 2022 an electrical fire broke out of the building's roof after birds damaged a solar panel. The centre was evacuated and part of Anchor Road closed. Although the fire was extinguished within an hour, the water used for firefighting caused extensive damage to the upper floors of the building. After more than two years of repairs, the centre reopened on 2 July 2024.

Current exhibits

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. * The Planetarium – The UK's first 3D

with seasonal, presenter-led star shows for all ages. * The Tinkering Space – Opened in July 2016. A space on the first floor to design, create and invent with a giant ball run, a

Baxter (robot) Baxter is an industrial robot first built on 22 September 2011 by Rethink Robotics, a start-up company founded by Rodney Brooks. The robot is a two-armed collaborative robot with an animated face. It is three feet tall and weighs 165 pou ...

, Nao (robot), 3D printers and an air table. * Food – A kitchen and living greenhouse with exhibits about the science of food and programming spaces to have a go at making your own. * Live Lab – An evolving lab space where visitors can experience current science including practical lab skills, research and dissections. * All About Us – This opened in Spring 2011 and has 50 interactive exhibits which allow visitors to discover how amazing the human body is. * Real Brain – As part of the All About Us exhibition, We The Curious has an exhibit that displays a real human brain. The exhibit has been produced to give visitors an understanding of medical science research. * Animate It! – this exhibition was developed with

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

. Visitors can make their own animated films (2D and 3D), see a film set from Wallace & Gromit's '

A Matter of Loaf and Death ''Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death'' is a 2008 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. Directed by Nick Park and written by Park and Bob Baker, it is the fifth installment in the '' Wallace & Gromit'' ...

', or make Morph spin in a Praxinoscope. * Our World – Allows visitor to discover the world around us through investigation. Includes Icy Bodies, Giant Bubbles and the Turbulent Orb. * Your Amazing Brain – The second large section on the ground floor, this area deals with the

, in particular

optical illusions In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide variety; their ca ...

and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

. * Studio TV (Then: Curiosity Zone) – Incorporating most of the upper level, this area deals with

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

, light,

force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

magnets A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

, and also includes a mock television studio. * Space Gallery – This area includes exhibits about space travel and discovery, and the 3D Planetarium, in which 6-8 shows are given daily. * Studio TV – a mock television studio. 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 former

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, 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 the

. The architect behind the renovation was Chris Wilkinson. The building includes a eutectic tank, which is a high transparent tube filled with thousands of balls containing eutectic 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.

Former exhibits

* Wildwalk ''- ''Wildwalk was an

Ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

Science centre A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

, which contained two artificial

, hands-on exhibits, and live animal exhibits. The centre comprised a large building (previously a lead-works building) with a 'living rainforest' attached to the southern side, and was designed by Michael Hopkins & Partners. The centre housed animals, including

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

chameleons Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colours, be ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

finches The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

partridges A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdic ...

piranha A piranha (, or ; ) is any of a number of freshwater fish species in the subfamily Serrasalminae, of the family Serrasalmidae, in the order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, floodplains, lakes and reservoirs. Although ...

s, seahorses,

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

tarantulas Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the Family (biology), family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Therap ...

triggerfish Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest speci ...

: in total over 150 species from all major animal groups. The botanical house was split into two distinct sections: Plants on Land, which traced the development of plants from simple mosses through to complex flowering plants; and Tropical Forests, which showcased plants from tropical continents, including a

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

which produced a rare, bright red cone tall and in circumference in 2003. Following Wildwalks closure, all animals and plants were re-homed to other zoos and natural history venues. Some elements of the exhibits from Wildwalk have been incorporated into Explore.

* IMAX – Housed in the same building as ''Wildwalk'', the IMAX theatre was the first of the three At-Bristol attractions to open, on 20 April 2000. Since opening, the theatre received over 1.1 million visitors, and screened 70 films. The longest running film, and thus that with the highest attendance figures, was Cyberworld 3D.

Charitable status

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 We The Curious has also recently embarked on a career ladder scheme with partnership school City Academy.

Venue hire

There are rooms and roof terraces above the exhibition space that are used for private hire. These have been used by organisations such as

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and FameLab as well as other conferences, meetings and events. These spaces have also been used for weddings and civil partnerships. We The Curious also hires out the exhibition floor, Planetarium,

Millennium Square Millennium Square may refer to: *Millennium Square, Bristol *Millennium Square, Leeds *Millennium Square, Sheffield {{dab ...

and Anchor Square.

Sustainability

Since its inception

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

has been a key part of the We The Curious project. The We The Curious building (formerly Explore and At-Bristol) is an example of low-energy design with a phase-change storage tank enabling air source heat pumps to heat and cool the building using only night surplus electricity. At-Bristol (as the centre was then known) joined the 10:10 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%. 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. In 2011 At-Bristol was awarded a Gold Green Tourism Award and a West of England Carbon Champions Carbon Champion Award and in 2012 a Silver South West Sustainable Tourism Award. March 2012 also saw At-Bristol's environmental performance being improved further with the installation of a 50-kilowatt peak solar

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

array to produce electricity for the building from the sun. 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 become

carbon neutral Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and Greenhouse gas removal, removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon diox ...

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 sustainable

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

and reducing air pollution.

IMAX 3D Cinema in 2006 and 2007

*'' CyberWorld 3D'' (2006) *'' IMAX Deep Sea 3D'' (27 January 2007)

References

External links

Official We The Curious Site

The Exploratory (archive site)

(original article is only available on pay or subscription) {{Authority control Tourist attractions in Bristol Grade II listed buildings in Bristol Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium Science museums in England Bristol Harbourside Museums in Bristol