SUNDERLAND
GETS NEW £8.2m VENUE
Sunderland is to get a major new venue
for music, dance and drama.
Just days after Sunderland Council
granted planning permission for the new £8.2m venue, Arts Council England (ACE)
has awarded a £6m grant through the National Lottery to the Sunderland Music,
Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust towards the cost of the building. Construction
work will begin later this year with the multi-use auditorium opening in 2019.
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DELIGHTED … Fire Station
Director Helen Green (front left)
is pictured on the site of
Sunderland’s new £8.2m venue
with MAC Trustees, from left, Ross Millard, Paul
Callaghan,
Marie Nixon and Chair John
Mowbray
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Together the new auditorium and the
renovated Fire Station will provide an integrated centre for the performing
arts that will sit next to, and very much
complement, the hugely successful Sunderland Empire. While on a smaller scale
than the Empire, it will present an exciting programme of music, dance,
drama and spoken word.
The venue will have retractable seating
for 450 and will also be able to host 700 people standing. There will also be
an outdoor stage and open area music and performance space to the rear of the
redeveloped Fire Station.
The award-winning architect behind the
design of the auditorium is Jason Flanagan, who was project director for the
iconic Sage building in Gateshead and is currently leading the Wembley Theatre
scheme. His other designs include the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in
Cardiff and LiveWorks in Newcastle.
John Mowbray, Chair of the MAC Trust,
said: “We’re obviously thrilled that Arts Council has chosen to support
Sunderland with the new auditorium and believe it will have a transformational
effect on the city’s arts and culture sector. It will be a game-changer in
terms of the cultural offer the city will be able to deliver.
“We’re extremely grateful to Arts
Council for this very generous capital grant particularly considering the
competition there is from other parts of the country for their limited budget.
It shows they recognise the significant changes in arts and culture that are happening
in the city and shares our ambition for Sunderland. We would also particularly
like to thank Sunderland Council who have offered tremendous support during the
development stage for this superb new cultural asset for the city.”
Helen Green, Director of the Fire
Station, added “This will be a landmark building at the heart of our ambition
to transform one of Sunderland’s most historic areas into an exciting and
vibrant part of the city. It will be a venue of which the city can be proud,
presenting local, regional, national and international artists to local
audiences and giving new and emerging artistic talent a platform on which to
shine. It will attract audiences from both inside and outside the city and is a
statement of intent and evidence that Sunderland is serious about arts and
culture. ”
Sunderland musician, Ross Millard, of
the Futureheads and Frankie and the Heartstrings was delighted by the news: “The
music scene has always been really healthy in this city and a brand
new venue of this size will be a great way to support our
local musicians and performers. It will also allow Sunderland to
regularly attract top touring musicians, too, which is a
massive boost.”
Marie Nixon, Chief Executive of
Sunderland Student’s Union and a musician who formerly played with Sunderland
band, Kenickie, and is now in the Cornshed Sisters also expressed her support:
“"It's a really exciting time to be in Sunderland. Our talented and
creative people are having a huge, positive influence on the city - and this is
being recognised nationally too. I can't wait to see amazing performances in
our new venue - and perhaps take part in a few."
Andrew Burnett of Buckley Burnett,
Project Directors for the MAC Quarter, said: “The auditorium is another huge
step in the regeneration of Sunderland. Such a significant investment by
ACE into the future of this city will help us to deliver a first class cultural
venue for the people of this city.”
Jane Tarr, Director North, Arts Council
England, said “We’re excited about this landmark project in Sunderland’s
cultural development and look forward to continuing to work with partners
across the city to deliver the new auditorium. It’s an investment in the strong
leadership which has seen the cultural offer blossom in Sunderland over the
past few years and we hope people in Sunderland will have a new venue to be
proud of.”
Arts Council England champions, develops and
invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. Arts
Council supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries –
from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts
to collections. Between 2015 and 2018, Arts Council plans to invest £1.1
billion of public money from government and an estimated £700 million from the
National Lottery to help create experiences for as many people as possible
across the country.
The new auditorium is the third phase of
the MAC Trust’s transformation of the area. The first phase was the
award-winning renovation of the historic Dun Cow pub, and the second stage is
the ongoing transformation of the old Fire Station off High Street West. Work
is well on the way on the redevelopment of the fire station into a restaurant,
cafe, heritage centre and dance and drama studios.
There will be further announcements
regarding the MAC Quarter in the next few months.
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