'Trade agreement' sees JORVIK Vikings move next door!

JORVIK’s Vikings are returning to Coppergate!  That’s the message from the team at JORVIK Viking Centre, who will be moving into York St Mary’s – just a few paces away from the attraction’s traditional entrance – in a partnership exhibition with York Museums Trust.

The exhibition, which will run until early 2017, focuses on the trade that made York a powerful centre of international commerce, with its navigable rivers and fertile land providing a perfect hub for travellers and settlers alike, creating a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities.

“Even though JORVIK Viking Centre itself has been closed for over five months, we are still getting hundreds of people coming along ever day with a thirst for Norse knowledge, so having a fantastic exhibition that tells a key part of Jorvik’s commercial story literally in the adjacent building is a great way of keeping the story alive, whilst we continue to rebuild and re-imagine the attraction beneath their feet,” comments director of attractions for York Archaeological Trust, Sarah Maltby.  “We’re very happy to be working with York Museums Trust and to be able to present a JORVIK exhibition in York St Mary’s, which is such a wonderful space.”

The new exhibition will be entitled JORVIK: Home & Abroad, and will feature a wide range of artefacts taken from York’s Viking collections, alongside tableaux taken from the JORVIK Viking Centre displays which remained above the waterline during last December’s floods.  The exhibition will also provide a temporary home for JORVIK’s team of historic costumed interpreters, who will be sharing their knowledge with visitors.

Mike Woodward, chief operating officer for York Museums Trust, said, “The Viking history of York is world famous thanks to the success of the JORVIK Viking Centre and we are delighted to be working in partnership with them on this exciting exhibition. It makes perfect sense to use York St Mary’s as a venue for a new Viking experience while the centre is closed as many of the finds were discovered very close by.

“We hope to build on the partnership for a year of the Vikings in 2017, with the JORVIK Viking Centre reopening and a major exhibition on the Viking history of Britain being planned at the Yorkshire Museum.”

This is not the first time that the Vikings have invaded the building next door; in 2000, when the original time cars were replaced as part of a major redevelopment of JORVIK Viking Centre, many of the key artefacts were displayed within the former church alongside artist’s impressions of how the new attraction would look once it re-opened.

Jorvik: Home & Abroad will run from 25 June 2016 until late February 2017, when the artefacts start to return to JORVIK Viking Centre.  Admission prices will be £5 for adults, £3 for concessions and free for children.  YMT Cardholders will get in free, as will JORVIK Group Pastport holders.  The exhibition will open daily from 10.00am until 5.00pm.

For more details on this, and the two other exhibitions that form part of the JORVIK on Tour programme – at now open at York Theatre Royal, and , please visit www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk

More details are also available at www.yorkstmarys.org.uk

ENDS

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay@pyperyork.co.uk