Interactivity is key to making British Music Experience a success.

Contributions from big names and a pedigree team unite as building work at The 02 begins

By Gordon Masson

THE ORGANISERS OF THE BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE are promising to showcase the UK's musical future alongside its past, as building work begins on a permanent museum to celebrate British music through the decades.

The British Music Experience will open next year at The O2 in London and builders have already started preparing the 22,000 sq ft space in the O2 Bubble, in the wake of the King Tut exhibition's departure.

The creative team behind the multi-million-pound development have been working on the concept for more than a year and, with some of the British music industry's biggest names involved, the museum's hierarchy are promising a state-of-the-art interactive environment to entice the paying public.

"The British Music Experience will be a museum dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the rich musical heritage that Britain has, but as well as looking at the past and present we'll also be taking a stab at the future," says director of curatorial affairs Bob Santelli.

"Museums that are built in the 21st century have become active areas of interpretation and the BME will be exactly that - an interactive museum that is experiential; it won't be somewhere to just look at exhibits and move on, it will be hands-on for visitors and will demand some critical thinking."