THE National Media Museum would be the main host venue if Bradford wins a Government contest to put on a £5 million celebration of the North, it has been revealed.

Bradford is one of the cities vying to host the Great Exhibition of the North in 2018, which would feature the best of art, culture and design in the North as part of George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse project.

City Hall, St George’s Hall and the Alhambra Theatre would also help to host the event if the city secures it, the bid team has said.

The Science Museum Group, which runs the Media Museum as well as two other museums in the North, has thrown its weight behind Bradford’s bid, offering up the museum as the anchor host.

Director Ian Blatchford said: “With three museums in the North of England, the National Media Museum is uniquely placed to call upon the expertise and ingenuity across the Science Museum Group.

“Sitting geographically between its superb sister museums, the Museum of Science Industry in Manchester and the National Railway Museum in York, the museum in Bradford can be a magnet not only for the innovation of that dynamic city, but for the North as a whole.

“We are delighted to be backing Bradford’s bid.”

Museum director Jo Quinton-Tulloch added: “There’s no doubt our extraordinary city has a real energy about it after the extensive regeneration in recent years.

“And like the city itself our focus is squarely on the future.

“By the time of the Great Exhibition of the North we will have opened our £1.8m world-class interactive gallery, bringing the science of light, sound and perception to life, and inspiring the next generation or scientists and engineers.”

She said the museum would also be on its way to realising its next ambition to create a major new gallery bringing together the treasures in its collection.

Ms Quinton-Tulloch said: “We’re incredibly proud to be a part of that cultural heritage and to play our part in Bradford’s bid to host the Great Exhibition of the North.”

The bid team say the buildings around City Park form a natural bowl, which can be further enhanced by temporary structures.

Bradford Council’s leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said: “We are fortunate in Bradford to have such a perfect stage for an event as ambitious as the Great Exhibition of the North.”

“We are proud to have a cultural asset as strong as the National Media Museum as well as some of the grandest Victorian venues in the country.

“Being in the heart of the North we are well connected with other cities.

“We’ve also made excellent progress on city centre regeneration and with our young, diverse and enterprising population we believe there is no better place to host an exhibition of this scale.”

Bids have to be submitted by June 30.