Details revealed of Darlington's 'hotel for the arts' (From Darlington and Stockton Times)
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Details revealed of Darlington's 'hotel for the arts'
7:00am Friday 5th October 2012 in News
By Vicki Henderson, Darlington reporter
Darlington Arts Centre
THE developers behind a project to restore a former arts centre closed because of council budget cuts have spoken publicly about their plans for the first time.
Graham Thrower and Andy Bottomley, the men behind plans to develop Darlington Arts Centre into a hotel, with associated arts space, have pledged to create a “worldclass facility for local people”
and say they are extremely positive about the project.
Their business plan would effectively see commercial parts of the site – a hotel and restaurant – subsidise a revamped arts facility.
The proposal is being closely watched by developers and arts groups around the country to see if it is a viable way of keeping arts facilities open despite the squeeze on the public purse.
The arts centre, in Vane Terrace, was closed by Darlington Borough Council earlier this year as it tried to cut its budget by a fifth. It currently stands empty.
The scheme to revive the building, known as Project Vane, was announced earlier this year, with the outcome of a bid to the Arts Council for funding to develop the site into a boutique hotel with a LANDMARK VENUE: Darlington Arts Centre, which would become a boutique hotel under developers’ ambitious proposals restaurant, alongside a performance hall and two art galleries, expected in January.
Mr Thrower said: “In this country, art facilities have either been publicly-funded or have been commercial galleries.
What’s beginning to be realised is that we need a new template for funding and running this sort of arts venue.
“There is simply not enough public money to go round. It’s a concept that is very interesting to the likes of the Arts Council.”
Mr Thrower and Mr Bottomley, who both have backgrounds in finance, as well as arts ventures, have been working with the council and local arts groups to ensure that any new venue would work for Darlington.
“We all recognise that the arts centre has a place in a lot of people’s hearts,” said Mr Thrower.
“It’s our intention to ensure that the building is accessible and affordable for as many people as possible – not to create any kind of exclusive or elitist place.
“The arts centre as envisaged by us will only succeed if the people of Darlington take it to their hearts.”
Spy Boy says...
8:45pm Fri 5 Oct 12
I've seen the proposals and it is quite an interesting proposal from two chaps that have quite a portfolio. I still think they'll need to get their tape measures out though, looking at the plans and the actual structure. No doubt they'll be able to hire people in with the expertise to get somewhere near the vision. Just Google Project Vane for some idea of the scale of this project.
I'm certainly not going to 'rubbish' the project, but I will state again, that this project is NOT a replacement for our lost Arts Centre. The council may wish you to believe this, but it's simply not true. The money that is to be ringfenced for the Arts in Darlington may never get to the people of Darlington and may just go to fund those stupid Wheelie Bins that no one seems to want.
As for Mr Trower's final comments, yes that's great. 'Accessible and affordable' is very good. The council were trying to price it out of the market. Making it non-elitist and non-exclusive is also very good, but it's a matter of scale. I've always said that it wasn't elitist before, but most of the people of Darlington still seemed to think it was. The Arts should be open to all as stated and I hope that this project will support this, though some of the plans seem to make this look even more elitist. This gives confirmation of those people's doubts. It certainly sounds expensive, given the level of investment. Let's hope that it does again become 'a place dear to our hearts.'
Mr Thrower and Mr Bottomley, I hope that your project succeeds, but it's been a huge struggle by the folks at the Arts Centre and it's hosted groups to put 'bums-on-seats' for a long time. If they had managed to make a profit, they wouldn't have been closed down. Out of a possible 250,000 people in the immediate area, it was sometimes hard to get near 100 of them to attend a touring show. I've often taken a seat in an almost empty theatre to see some very good productions. It's bad for the audience and performers to have this situation and now the council are saying that the Civic is also 'Not fit for purpose' as they said about the Arts Centre before they closed it. This means that touring companies may give this venue a miss too, leaving Darlington like a bit of black hole.