A BID has been launched for West Dunbartonshire to have a centre celebrating the town's shipbuilding heritage to rival the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Titanic n Belfast.
The Ship Yard Trust was recently formed to take forward ideas and get Bankies on side for their dream of a building worthy of the area's heritage.
Retiring MSP Gil Paterson is chair of the group with artist and former John Brown's apprentice Tom McKendrick also on the board.
The Trust said their "ambitious" goal was for the quality of the building to equal attractions such as the Guggenheim, Titanic Museum and V&A in Dundee.
Mr Paterson said: "The Clyde’s past is a fantastic, untapped asset and coupled with what Clydeside is engaged in now and into the future, the Trust wants to bring together and showcase this to the world, we can then celebrate our past and help pioneer our future."
Mr McKendrick added: “Apprenticed to the Clyde at15 years of age, like thousands of my generation and 100 years of previous generations, instils in you a deep sense of belonging.
"The power, scale and the vision of huge ships being built marks you. Then there is the danger and the dirt, to produce these beautiful things. There is nothing to compare in any other industry.”
The Ship Yard Trust is launching a public consultation of their project to build a venue
The group has launched a public consultation on the design and build of the venue.
Danny McCafferty, board member and former West Dunbartonshire Council leader, said: “Most people are familiar with the proverb ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’ meaning great enterprises can develop from the most modest of beginnings.
“The history of the Clyde demonstrates how true that is. It is a story worth telling, not only because it has resonated and impacted throughout the entire world but to take inspiration from, to write the next chapter, leaving behind a heritage from the present as well as past generations of Clydesiders.”
Ian Mackay, another board member and chartered surveyor, said after a visit to the Guggenheim, he realised it had changed the fortunes of the post-shipbuilding Bilbao.
He added: “Then I thought on the Clyde we have a much bigger shipbuilding and engineering story to tell but we’ve nowhere to tell it, so why don’t we build our own as part of the reinvigoration of Clydeside.”
For more information and to have your say visit theshipyard.scot.
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