Overview

'Why can't museums be more like films?' thought 11-year-old John Sunderland. He was a truant in a West Yorkshire grammar school, a maths failure, a great respecter of art and history and loved films. He went on to create the iconic British TV cartoon character Dusty Bin and made films with the zany comedian Kenny Everett. He turned out to be the perfect person to solve the quandary of the British archeologists who wanted to bring the 10th century finds of Viking York to life for the public. You'll romp chortling through this uproarious, incredible behind-the-scenes account of the creation of the original Jorvik Viking Centre told with the unremitting Yorkshire wit of its Project Designer, John Sunderland.

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9781495364419

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John Sunderland, a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkshireman, was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Britain, in 1950. He was awarded a choral scholarship to Wakefield Cathedral and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. He studied graphic design, animation and film at Bath Academy of Art and Birmingham Polytechnic after which he began his freelance career in film and animation. From his work with Yorkshire Television, he became the title designer of the hit game show 3*2*1 and created the character 'Dusty Bin', the program's iconic booby prize. From that exposure he landed further animation direction projects and became director and art-director for film projects with Kenny Everett. His career path changed when he presented innovative concept designs to the York Archaeological Trust for their plan to develop a museum based on their five-year rescue-archaeology dig of Viking age remains at Coppergate in York. John became the Project Designer of the original Jorvik Viking Centre in York in 1981. Following the opening of Jorvik in 1984, he, along with other key members of the original JVC team, founded Heritage Projects, York, of which he was the Creative Director. In 1988 he went freelance once again. Between1984 to 2008 he went on to design and build 25 commercially successful, award-winning ground-breaking international museums and cultural heritage centres many of which are still in operation. In the early 90s the media dubbed him 'the Godfather of the Heritage Industry'. During the same period he completed over 150 international consultancy projects, several of which became full-blown developments. He also produced and directed documentaries associated with his exhibitions. John married Kathy Kirkpatrick in 2006 in New York City. In 2004 and thereafter he became involved with her businesses, Life Cafe in New York City and Bushwick, Brooklyn (Life Cafe was featured in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Broadway hit RENT). During that time he painted and wrote a collection of short stories and began outlines for several fictional titles and psychic and historic thrillers inspired by his project developments as well as his American and New York City experiences. John and Kathy retired from the Cafe business in 2012. Currently, they live in the foothills of the Sierra Bernia on the Costa Blanca of Spain where he has begun publishing his writings. In between the words he loves to paint and watch over the banana plants.

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