Social Renewal
The third of Newcastle University's Societal Challenges is Social Renewal, defined as:
"How individuals, communities and organisations adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing and challenging environment".
Major global challenges relate to economic, social, political and technological change, and our expertise relates to a wide range of regional, global, historical and cultural contexts.
To find out more about the new Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal please click here or visit the institute web site NISR
Further information about Social Renewal and our Schools involvement in this societal challenge will be posted soon.
The Great North Build
The Great North Build exhibition launched at the Great North Museum: Hancock on the 12th March is already proving a success.
The small Lego town with a big purpose has attracted a lot of visitors and organisers are expecting it to grow in popularity during its five week run.
The Great North Build is part of the public launch of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal. It has already received attention in the local media with Tyne Tees Television, BBC Radio Newcastle, the Journal and Sky Tyne and Wear coming along before it opened to find out more.
Director of the Institute Professor Mark Shucksmith said: “The Great North Build looks set to be a great success and I have been so impressed with all the time and effort that has gone into planning the build. I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in putting it all together. The attention to detail is amazing.
“Of course, the exhibition is fun but it has a serious purpose by bringing town planning to life in a really innovative way. This made it a great way to launch our new Institute, which is about finding answers to the big questions and finding ways to communicate this to the public in a accessible way.”
Around 110,000 bricks have gone into the Great North Build, which is supervised by architecture graduates. Each day visitors will be asked to respond to a new scenario, building and planning the development of the town to meet these briefs. There is also Duplo for younger visitors and an area where you can let your imagination run riot by building the Lego construction of your dreams.
The exhibition is being captured by time lapse photography which will show the Lego city growing and developing during the five weeks.
The Great North Build runs at the Great North Museum: Hancock until 14 April.
The Great North Museum: Hancock is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and on Sundays from 1pm to 5pm.