'The perfect week to welcome back Whitworth to The Star'
Nancy Fielder takes a look behind the Star’s headlines of the week...
There is a plan and it is good!
The building we now lovingly refer to as Central Library is set to become the Millennium Galleries and Graves Gallery - and vice versa.
Hold on to your hats, it is all change.
In that vein, I'd like to welcome Whitworth home. We asked what you would like to see in your local newspaper and bringing back our favourite cartoonist was on the list. Once again, we can now all share a giggle as he points and shots at the city's problems of the day. How timely with this week's big reveal about our library, museum and gallery.
I love big and bold ideas. Sheffield needs better and the scars are visible from a lack of past initiatives on this scale in the city centre.
How exciting that wonderful areas filled with light are to be a new home where children will learn, archives will be dug into and a library reimagined.
What should a library look like in 2036 and what will future generations need from it? Sheffield is finally considering that question and seeking answers.
I met with museums CEO Kim Streets and council leader Fran Belbin this week. We talked through the plans. These are two women who really want to make this work and they want to make it right for Sheffielders.
.jpeg?crop=3:2,smart&trim=&width=640&quality=65)
Right now, this is just an idea. I'm nothing if not honest so I did say I thought they had quite a job on to persuade this city that this is a scheme that will really happen. Right now, there is no money behind it.
On your behalf, I asked the big question - what happens if they don't get the money?
Kim was vehement in her response: "We will."
That's what I wanted to hear but more importantly, that is absolutely what we need. The time for burying heads in the sand and putting collective fingers in ears has gone.
Now we need strong leadership from the right people, experts in bids from other successful large cities and an unwavering drive to make this happen.
But it does also need the whole of Sheffield to back it. Not just those with power, but those who will use it - the most important people of all. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be scrutinised, questioned and those in charge held to account. And we haven't forgotten about the Library Theatre. But I, for one, would dearly love to see this plan become reality.
It is the responsibility of those at the top to be open and transparent if they want public opinion on their side. We are willing and ready - we have been for decades. Please don't let us down on something so important.
The last development of this scale in town saw the Egg Boxes disappear and the Winter Gardens appear. I bet it never crossed any of our minds back then, at the turn of the century, that the next potentially transformational project would also involve the newly opened Millennium Gallery.
The Star has been here for this story from the very beginning, when work started on Central Library in the 1920s. We will be here for the next chapter. I'm already delightfully imagining where the historians of the future will sit as they delve through the city's archives to find out exactly what went right and wrong.
- Get in touch with your questions, thoughts, fears and joy about these plans. Write to The Star, Fountain Precinct, Balm Green, Sheffield S1 2JA or email me, [email protected]