Beamish fans are being offered an exclusive opportunity to Take a Seat in our 1950s cinema! The museum is building a recreation of The Grand from Ryhope in Sunderland and you can have the opportunity to sponsor a cinema seat as part of our Take a Seat campaign.
Beamish buffs and film fanatics alike can sponsor an individual seat within the main auditorium of our recreation of The Grand, supporting the museum. By sponsoring a seat in our recreation of The Grand from Ryhope, you will help the museum generate funds to complete the build and fit out of our cinema.
Cinema seats can be sponsored by individuals or businesses. Those who Take a Seat are paying to have a name of their choice engraved onto a brass plaque which will be mounted onto one of the cinema seats – see our Terms and Conditions for full details. In addition sponsors of this campaign will receive a personal invitation to a special celebration event in 2024 which will be sent to the email address supplied during check out.
Seat sponsorship will be sold on a first come, first served basis from the museum’s online shop and are subject to terms and conditions. Individual seat sponsorship is £295 with a package available for businesses priced at £5,000, which includes acknowledgement of the sponsorship on screen.
Take A Seat Terms & Conditions
- Sponsored seats will be sold on a first come, first served basis according to availability within either the Stalls or Gallery areas in main auditorium.
- Plaques to remain on the seat for 15 years from official date of cinema opening at the museum after which time the sponsor will be contacted to either:
- re-sponsor for a further period of time and cost both factors to be determined by the museum at that time or
- release the seat to a new sponsor
- NB: it is the responsibility of the seat sponsor to keep the museum updated of any new contact details. If no contact can be made with the sponsor within six weeks of the expiry of the seat sponsorship then that sponsorship will be deemed to have expired and any right to re-sponsor it will be lost.
- Once a name plaque is paid for and a name choice agreed upon by both the sponsor and the museum (in writing by email) then the payment becomes non-refundable. Name changes can be requested after this time at an additional charge of £100 per change: expiry date will remain at 15 years from date of opening of cinema.
- Beamish Museum reserves the right to reject any seat name where the proposed text for the engraved plaque contains unacceptable language and/or does not abide by the museum’s standards.
- All plaques will be the same dimensions, made of brass with text in upper and lower case engraved in font: Baskerville Old Face (regular); and will be mounted on the back of the seat, visible from the row behind.
- The engraving itself can be first names and a surname (eg Jacqueline, Ian and Robert Wilkinson-Brown), to a maximum 45 characters including spaces. Wording on the plaque must be agreed by the museum.
- Payment must be made in advance with seat sponsorship commencing once cinema is opened and plaque fitted to seat.
- Maintenance of all plaques will be the sole responsibility of Beamish Museum.
- Sponsoring a seat does not confer any priority booking entitlement on the seat.
- Accessibility to the seats/cinema may, at times, be affected by short notice operational disruption. Wherever possible Beamish Museum will endeavour to give as much advance warning of the cinema being closed to visitors as possible.
- Beamish Museum reserves the right to change the terms of the sponsorship at any time.