After 15 days of energetic and rigorous campaigning Norwich’s Dragon Hall has faced the heartbreak of losing a public vote to bring renowned artist Richard Wentworth to the region, cruelly by the narrowest of margins.

Pitched against the might of Manchester’s combined museums Dragon Hall fell just 5 votes short of the big city’s total. Expressed in percentage terms Manchester achieved 40.95% of votes cast with Dragon Hall attracting 40.82%

Dragon Hall’s Heritage Engagement Manager Sarah Power who led the campaign for the ancient King St building said ‘I feel gutted, it’s so disappointing. As my family and friends will know this campaign has taken over my life for the last couple of weeks! In fairness it was a bit of a David and Goliath situation – the Manchester bid was from an amalgamation of Manchester Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery, and Manchester Art Gallery. These are run by Manchester University and City Council – organisations with thousands of employees and massive infrastructures. In contrast Dragon Hall has two full time and two part time staff and is run by a tiny charitable trust managed by volunteers. To get almost as many votes as such high profile museums is amazing really and is thanks to the massive levels of support received from all over the region.’
 
The poll was one of ten to match ten major artists with ten museum and gallery events around the country for Museums at Night 2013. Dragon Hall was bidding to bring the sculptor to Dragon Hall for their Museums at Night event In the Company of the Curious: Steampunk at Dragon Hall on the evening of 16 May. The venue was the only shortlisted applicant in the whole of East Anglia.

The final result was the closest in the UK and there were several recounts before Manchester was announced as the winner by the narrowest of margins. In total 1,629 voted for Manchester and 1,624 for Dragon Hall. But the show will go on, as Sarah added ‘I’d like to thank all the people who voted, organised Facebook and Twitter campaigns and campaigned so fervently. Our Steampunk event will take place anyway and will be a celebration of our hard work and perseverance and a joyful celebration of history and culture’.

Full details of the Steampunk event will be announced soon.

Further information at www.dragonhall.org

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