April 28, 2010 the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, presented the first Urban Park Laboratories (UPLabs); amazing digital projects in public space,  from May 1 permanently available to visitors of Culturepark Westergasfabriek. Artists and creative people have used location based, mobile and digital techniques  to enliven the park with art, culture and history.

A £13 million project uniting the National Maritime Museum, Imperial War Museum and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust has saved one of the South East’s most historic and significant industrial maritime buildings.

Since its premiere in 2001, ExtraSchicht has been bringing the fascination of an entire region to a single point. The subtitle, "Night of Industrial Culture" reveals at once the original aim of the festival in its first years: ExtraSchicht takes former industrial plants, active production facilites, mines and slagheaps, and skilfully turns them into venues of industrial culture, making clear the transformation from heavy industry to a modern region of business and culture. In doing so, it creates an atmosphere that could only be generated in the Ruhr Area, because of its history.

Industrial culture is the acme of the region's structural transformation. Where coal and steel once shaped life, today we see presentations of art, culture and nature. The Ruhr Area has many factors to thank for this metamorphosis, including the International Construction Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park. From 1989 to 1999, the entire Emscher region was turned into a vast park. Former industrial wastelands were saved from dereliction and transformed into witnesses to industrial history. Decommissioned mines and mine buildings now serve as venues for music, dance and theatre, former production facilities now provide space for leisure and relaxation. At the end of ten years of activity, the IBA created the "industrial culture Route". Since its very beginnings, the aim of ExtraSchicht has been to arouse interest for the 400 kilometres of the route, and to play the structural and technical monuments of industrial history, museums and sites of the transformation with artistic productions. This is because the former production sites are not places for melancholy memories, having long since developed into lively spaces of industrial culture and attractive venues.

Imaginative productions by international artists allow the venues of industrial culture to be seen from a new perspective for ExtraSchicht. Simultaneously, the Night of Industrial Culture with its very special atmosphere positively charges up the image of the Ruhr Area. Mobility and accessibility in the region are likewise elements of the concept. When shows are running concurrently at 50 locations in the region, travelling between them is part of the experience. As such, ExtraSchicht is not only bringing shows on stage all over the region, but also sets the entire Metropolis Ruhrin motion.

ExtraSchicht >>

ERIH Anchor Point Morwellham Quay near Tavistock, one of Devon's highest profile tourist attractions has been saved from permanent closure. Morwellham Quay has been bought by Simon and Valerie Lister, who run Bicton Park Botanical Gardens near Budleigh Salterton in Devon.

The open-air mining museum went into administration in September 2009, after Devon County Council withdrew its funding. In the 1970s Morwellham Quay attracted more than 150,000 visitors a year, but that number has dropped by two-thirds. In September 2009, Devon County Council announced it was to stop funding Morwellham, a Unesco World Heritage Site, leaving it with a £1m shortfall. It went into administration, closed in October and was put up for sale.

The new owner hope to ropen the site by September.

Morwelham Quay >>

Zum dritten mal findet in Sachsen-Anhalt der "Tag der Industriekultur" statt. Landesweit öffnen am 18. April mehr als 35 Museen, Besucherbergwerke und andere Orte der Industriekultur ihre Türen und bieten Besuchern besondere Veranstaltungen.

Im Mittelpunkt der Veranstaltungen steht in diesem Jahr der Landkreis Mansfeld-Südharz mit seiner Tradition des Kupferbergbaus. Allein hier finden sieben Veranstaltungen statt, von der Fahrt mit der Mansfelder Bergwerksbahn über die Besichtigung des Bernard-Koenen-Schachtes in Niederröblingen bis zum Frühlingskonzert in der Eisleber Gangolf-Kirche.

Weitere Höhepunkte des Tages sind die Präsentation eines im Aufbau befindlichen Industriemuseums auf dem Gelände der Erdgas Mittelsachsen GmbH in Schönebeck und die Eröffnung mehrerer Ausstellungen, u.a. im ERIH-Ankerpunkt Ferropolis bei Gräfenhainichen und in der Zentralwerkstatt Pfännerhall in Braunsbedra.

Das gesamte Veranstaltungsprogramm für den Tag der Industriekultur 2010 in Sachsen-Anhalt ist unter www.industrietourismus.de abrufbar.