Aberdeen will be the site of a major new centre for contemporary arts and the creative industries, following the approval by the Scottish Government of plans created by Peacock Visual Arts. The £12.5m Union Terrace Gardens centre aims to attract over 200,000 visitors annually to the north- east of Scotland and boost the economy of the Grampian region by £4m a year. The scheme received unanimous approval from Aberdeen City Council (ACC) and attracted thousands of messages of support from the public, assisting its acceptance by Holyrood. Lindsay Gordon, Director of Peacock, said that the development, designed by award-winning architects Brisac Gonzalez, “would bring something very special to the cultural and architectural landscape of the UK”, and that the building itself would “put Aberdeen on par with other Northern European cultural centres such as Helsinki, Oslo and Copenhagen”. The centre will cover 3,200m2, and will host activities spanning the contemporary arts, and house galleries, printmaking, television and dance studios, workshops and an education suite. The building should be finished by 2010.
Also in Aberdeen, The Lemon Tree, a performing arts venue which went into liquidation in December last year, is to re-open under the auspices of Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA), a charity which leases and operates His Majesty’s Theatre and the Music Hall and runs the city’s box office. ACC Councillor Kevin Stewart explained that the city council will lease the venue to APA from April this year “because it had a plan for the venue that was realistic, costed, and deliverable without delay”. APA Chief Executive Duncan Hendry said that the venue would be developed to provide cutting-edge drama and contemporary dance, and to re-establish its programme of music and comedy. A programme of staff recruitment will shortly be put in train, and performances should begin in June this year. The venue ran into difficulties last year when its core funding from the Scottish Arts Council switched to a project-funded model.