This shiny new museum replaced both the Swansea Maritime & Industrial Museum and the Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum in Cardiff.
The building is light and airy and has obviously had much investment, but sadly those are about the only positive points I can think of.
The predecessor museums were exciting places to visit as a kid, with huge machinery to see, vehicles to peer inside, working exhibits and the smell of oil in the air.
Now, despite a bigger space, there seem to be far fewer actual physical exhibits. True, there are a few token cars and wagons to be found, but there just doesn't seem to be any heart to the place any more.
Unfortunately, the museum seems to have fallen a bit too much in love with technology. Everywhere you turn, you're asked to listen to lengthy (and often quite dull) audio recordings of peoples' recollections of times past, watch eagerly-informative history videos or play trivial games of dubious value. Interesting physical items are rather thin on the ground.
In times past I could have visited and seen big machines in action or at least explored nicely-curated displays. Now, all I can do is listlessly plod from jabbering multimedia exhibit to jabbering multimedia exhibit, via a few glass cases containing buttons from sailors' uniforms, trade union pamphlets or other trivial trinkets.
If the museum is trying to chart a social history of South Wales, it's getting there; if it's trying to present our industrial heritage in an interesting way it has failed miserably. read more