The Scottish Arts Council has announced the investment of £11,176,440 of National Lottery funds to four new arts buildings in Shetland, Greenock, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Peacock Visual Arts has been awarded £4 million towards a visionary project which will provide a new model of arts organisation, working in partnership to provide a new base for PVA alongside Aberdeen City Council Arts Development and Arts Education and Citymoves Dance space.

Embedded within an architecturally new building in Union Terrace Gardens in the centre of Aberdeen, the extensive new facility will offer 3665m2 of exhibition spaces, printing workshops, television studio, library, dance facilities, flexible studios, restaurant, bar, kitchen, as well as office facilities.

Greenock Arts Guild, Inverclyde has also been awarded £2,685,540. This investment will support the replacement of the existing Greenock Arts Guild 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.


Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop has been awarded over £2.3 million to support the construction of the first purpose built, open access sculpture facility in the UK, creating a centre of excellence for visual arts on a local, national and international level.

The new centre will be built alongside and replace ESW's existing premises in the city's Leith area and will offer 30 high quality, naturally lit, artists' studios; a workshop suite with separate facilities for wood, metal and mixed media; a dedicated learning space; exhibition space and new accommodation for visiting artists in two apartments.

Shetland Arts Development Agency has also been awarded £2.12 million towards Mareel, a new cinema and music venue in Lerwick, Shetland. The development includes a live performance auditorium (320 seats or 700 standing); two cinemas; rehearsal space, a recording studio; café bar; educational facilities and digital media production facilities.

The investment was approved by the Joint Board of Scottish Screen and Scottish Arts Council yesterday and the grants follow on from initial "stage one" grants which allowed the organisations to work up their proposals in detail.

(CD/JM)