Scottish Arts Council - Infrastructure - Four new arts buildings

£11 million of National Lottery funding awarded to four new arts buildings

Four new arts building projects in Shetland, Greenock, Aberdeen and Edinburgh have come a stage further with over £11 million investment of National Lottery funding from the Scottish Arts Council.

The following projects were awarded funding in March 2008, following approval by the Joint Board of Scottish Screen and Scottish Arts Council. These grants follow on from initial ‘stage one’ grants which allowed the organisations to work up their proposals in detail.

artists impression of new building for Peacock Visual Arts by Brisac Gonzalez Architects

Peacock Visual Arts has been awarded £4.3 million towards an exciting and visionary new building in the city’s Union Terrace Gardens which will provide a new model of arts organisation, providing a new base for Peacock alongside Aberdeen City Council Arts Development and Arts Education and Citymoves Dance space.

Greenock Arts Guild, in Inverclyde has been awarded £2.7 million which will support the replacement of their existing building with a new modern theatre and arts centre in a more central and prominent site in the re-developing harbour area at Greenock, in partnership with Inverclyde Council, Riverside Inverclyde and the James Watt College.

artists impression of new building for Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop by Sutherland Hussey architects

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) has been awarded over £2.3 million to support the construction of the first purpose built, open access sculpture facility in the UK. The new centre will be built alongside and replace ESW’s existing premises in the city’s Leith area and will create a centre of excellence for visual arts with local, national and international impact.

Shetland Arts Development Agency has been awarded £2.1 million towards Mareel – a new cinema and music venue in Lerwick, Shetland. The development includes a live performance auditorium and two cinemas along with rehearsal space, a recording studio; café bar; educational facilities and digital media production facilities.

These four grants represent the culmination of the Scottish Arts Council’s major capital grants programme which has invested over £118 million of National Lottery funding in arts buildings of all sizes across the country. The success of the programme can be seen in infrastructure projects in all parts of the country with artists and communities benefiting from greatly improved, and often award winning, facilities.