BBC News | ENTERTAINMENT | Arts venues to open with lottery cash

Across the UK, arts lovers are preparing for an unprecedented selection of first nights, as a number of new and renovated venues reach completion.

Thirteen buildings, supported by more than �80m of lottery money, will be opening in the next few months and there's more to follow, as the BBC's Arts Correspondent, Rosie Millard reports.

Hard hats and scaffolding will no longer be a familiar sight at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre as its two-and-a-half year re-build nears completion.

The country's largest dance theatre will re-open to the public in a few weeks' time - just one of hundreds of lottery-funded arts projects coming to fruition over the coming months.

The construction of one of the grandest lottery ventures of all, the Tate Gallery of Modern Art inside London's disused Bankside power station, will be finished on Wednesday when the building is topped out with a special glass panel.

As well as the renovation of such well-known venues, lottery grants have also been used to set up smaller scale arts projects across the country.

Tate Gallery of Modern Art sign
The Tate's new Bankside gallery
One such venture is the Jerwood Space, a facility for dance and drama rehearsal in south London which opens next Monday. It was created with a lottery award of �1.4m.

"We're very excited as we've been looking forward to this opening for some time, though we're also slightly anxious as there are so many things to remember to get a building open in time," said Richard Lee of the Jerwood project.

Other projects are reaching completion across the country, with three opening this week, including the Courtyard Arts Centre in Hereford.

Musicians
New projects will provide valuable rehearsal space
In November, Manchester's new Royal Exchange Theatre will welcome the public in. Next year, the list continues with the opening of the Arc Arts Centre in Stockton.

However, Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theatre, strikes a note of caution about the future life of the projects: "You've got all these glorious new buildings and you've got hearts full of optimism but the question is will they get money to fund them from now on?"

It is a question with which the hundreds of new arts venues still under construction will continue to struggle.

Lottery funded projects

Tricycle Theatre �2.3m

National Youth Theatre HQ �1.75m

Courtyard Arts Centre �3.75m

Jerwood Dance and Drama �1.4m

Egypt Centre �0.4m

Sadler's Wells Theatre �30m

Royal Cornwall Museum �0.9m

Alcuin Wing, York Minster �1m

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester �23m

Geffrye Museum �3.75m

Museum of Scotland �7.25m

Sun Pavilion �0.4m

Arc Arts Centre, Stockton �6.5m

Total �82.4m


		^^ Back to top News Front Page \| World \| UK \| UK Politics \| Business \| Sci/Tech \| Health \| Education \| Entertainment \| Talking Point \| In Depth \| AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> \| To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII\|News Sources\|Privacy