User:Exhibitv Research

Neal Potter

Museum and Exhibition Designer

Neal Potter (b. 1949) was an English exhibition and museum designer. He was part of a new breed of designers, including John Sunderland (Yorvik,) who shook up the museum design world in the 1980s.

Background

Neal Potter attended Shirebrook Grammar School and Chesterfield College of Art where he followed a course in Environmental Design which incorporated all design disciplines from industrial design to townscape. But it was his out of college activities that dictated his career. In 1969 he was volunteering for a charity called The Young Volunteer Force started by barrister Anthony Steen. The charity went into depressed areas of the UK and recruited the local youth to help change their environment. Having designed a garden for the charity, Potter was asked by Steen to design an exhibition in the House of Commons to show MPs how the charity was spending their allocated funds.

Potter undertook the task, and at the age of 20 was introduced to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Leader of the opposition Edward Heath.

Exhibition Designer

Following a post graduate year in Construction at the old West of England College of Art he entered the UK Government's Information Service where he created or managed exhibitions, films, publications, advertising and direct mail on behalf of the Industrial Research Establishments of the Department of Trade and Industry.

From there he moved to become a full-time designer at the Central Office of Information’s Exhibition Division. Whilst there he designed exhibitions for all UK home government departs and travelled widely throughout the world designing and managing exhibitions for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This culminated with the design of the British Pavilion at Expo’85 in Japan and co-designing the British Pavilion at Expo’86 in Canada.

He left the drawing board for one year when he became Exhibitions Manager for the International Maritime Satellite Organisation (INMARSAT).

Museum Design

In 1986 the Director of the British Film Institute, Tony Smith, recruited Potter to be designer for the proposed Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) adjacent to the National Film Theatre. MOMI was opened by The Prince of Wales in 1988 to massive international applause.

Throughout the 1990s Potter designed some major exhibitions and museums around the world. He was asked to contribute to (Microsoft founder) Paul Allen’s Museum of Pop Culture under the Space Needle in Seattle where his concept for the collision of musical genres still stands at the centre of the attraction.

He spent 9 years commuting to Singapore where he worked for the Ministry of Defence’s exhibition/attraction programme. He also spent two years commuting to Seville where he worked with the Conran organisation to create the British Pavilion at Expo’92.

Other international projects included a review of the 20th Century at the Cultural Centre of Belem in Lisbon ,Portugal, and a genetics exhibition in Bonn, Germany.

During the 1990s he also designed the dramatic Earth Galleries Atrium at London’s Natural History Museum and was lead designer for their Ecology Gallery. He also helped open up the BBC’s Broadcasting House with an exhibition to celebrate their 70th anniversary in 1992.

In 1997 he was created Visiting Professor to the School of Architecture (Museum and Exhibition Design) at Humberside University.He gave away his fee by creating a student prize for the 'best use of imagination'. The winning student was sent to Washington DC to visit the Smithsonian museums and the West Coast of the USA to study the theme parks.

He worked with, and wrote for the museum industry's Museum and Exhibition Design Group eventaully becoming its Chairman. He also set up an exhibitions' group within the Chartered Society of Designers.

Potter was asked to pitch for two zones within the Millennium Dome but turned down the offer due to what he called ‘a misguided brief.’

In the new millennium he undertook major work at the RAF Museum at Hendon and Cosford. In particular he conceived and designed the 7,000 sq. m. National Cold War Museum interior at their Cosford site. The project was opened by The Princess Royal and Baroness Thatcher in 2007.

His underground exhibition on the theme of ‘Roots in Horticulture’ at the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 2007.

He applied to become Head of Design at the British Museum but was turned down. Some of his design work never came to realisation, notably in Hawaii, China, London and Bletchley Park.

His final project was to work with the Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust to create a battle of Britain Museum in the available rooms of Bentley Priory (from where the Battle of Britain was won). The project was opened by the Prince of Wales in 2013.

Post retirement

Despite having retired to Eastbourne, he continues to provide voluntary design work for a previous client who opened a private moving image museum in Deal, Kent.

In 2016 he originated and helped organise the Bolsover Hill Race which raised money for Macmillan Cancer Research.

In retirement he also designed a stone bench to celebrate the life of agricultural writer Fred Kitchen which sits outside Bolsover library.

Personal Life

In 1972 Potter married Angela Green who he met at art college in 1969. They have two children.

Potter continues to travel widely and commits his life adventures to books which he gives away to friends.