Members of the public were invited to comment on plans for the refurbishment of the galleries and give their views on what they would like to see in the new interior.

The work is currently scheduled to start in November 2005 and is likely to last for two years.

The event was organised by CREATE, a lottery-funded project that investigates and responds to what elderly citizens and young people think about McManus Galleries. Project officer Neil Paterson said, “The morning consisted of an update of the confirmed plans for the refurbishment of the museum to date. After lunch the forum investigated service provision, with people giving their views into what they wanted from McManus Galleries.

“The current plans for the Galleries includes work on the sinking structure of the west end of the building and taking the exhibitions out and putting them back in a manner that would most benefit the Dundee people.”

Leisure and arts convener Councillor Charles Farquhar, said, “The CREATE project has done a great deal of work consulting with the 50+ group and young people in Dundee about the McManus Galleries. I am delighted that the project ran a forum to allow anybody with an interest in history in Dundee to feed their views directly to museum staff on how museum services in the future should be designed.”