Open the Vault!

A film vault which has received £850,000 of Government funding is set for launch at the University of Teesside. The Vault has been built with Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) funding from One NorthEast and houses an archive of TV and film footage spanning more than 90 years. The Northern Region Film and Television Archive (NRFTA) collection is a consortium of partners; the University of Teesside, Gateshead Council through Tyne & Wear Archive Services and Trade Films. It is supported by the BBC, Tyne Tees, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Northern Film and Media.

The Archive’s earliest footage dates back to 1913, showing an English league football match with the Sunderland team. There are also:

• colour home movies dating back to the 1930s
• regional news and current affairs programmes from the late 1950s to the 1980s
• all series of Channel 4’s popular 1980’s music programme, The Tube, featuring one of Madonna’s first live TV appearances

The Vault will be launched on Wednesday 1 December at 1.30pm, by Middlesbrough Councillor David Budd, who is Councillor for the Ladgate Ward and a member of the Executive with responsibility for economic regeneration and culture, and the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, (Research & External) Professor Michael Smith. They will be cutting celluloid tape round the front of the Vault. It is based near the University’s main entrance, off King Edward’s Square.

The Archive’s building has special temperature and humidity controls to protect older film reels and is attached to the University's new cinema where archive screenings take place. The Archive is used by commercial clients, academic researchers and members of the public. The Vault will be fully open to the public from January 2005. For information about access please contact Dr Brian Barker on 01642 382895, e-mail b.barker@tees.ac.uk

Alan Clarke, One NorthEast Chief Executive, said: "This vault is a wonderful asset for the North East - charting on film its history from the early 20th Century and preserving these important images for future generations."

 

Simon Popple, Assistant Director of the University’s School of Arts & Media and Archive Manager, added: “This is a vital cultural asset for the University, local communities and the region as a whole. We are very pleased that it has come to fruition after a period of very hard work by all those individuals and agencies involved and now hope that its contents can be discovered and enjoyed by everyone.”

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