Arts battle begins in pursuit of £3m prize

Published on Monday 22 June 2009 22:52

A SHORTLIST of three projects vying to scoop a £3 million arts prize in Scotland's capital has been revealed.

Plans for a major gallery extension for Edinburgh College of Art's main building, a research centre and outdoor arena at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and a home for a national literary quarter in the capital will battle it out over the next three months.

They have fought off competition from ten other projects – including a long-awaited project to refurbish the Queen's Hall concert venue – to be in with a chance of turning multi-million pound schemes into reality.

The three finalists have each been awarded 10,000 and given six months to submit detailed plans for the contest. The winner will be announced at the end of next year. The 3m prize is being put up by a mystery donor for the contest run by the Scottish Community Foundation.

When the venture was announced last year, the foundation said the funding would be awarded to an "arts facility of cultural and architectural merit in the capital, in either a new or refurbished building".

Art school chiefs want to create an extension to the college's main building in Lauriston Place. New work by students, items from the art school's collections and international touring exhibitions would be displayed in the gallery, billed as "a new front room for the college".

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, which is due to start work on a long-awaited new building at its site in Newhaven later this year, would embark on a further expansion if it wins the 3m prize.

A "creative laboratories" complex would be built around a new outdoor arena suitable for hosting both exhibitions and special events.

The Scottish Book Trust's bid, details of which were revealed in The Scotsman on Saturday, would see its current offices off the Royal Mile turned into a visitor attraction which would be the base of a proposed national literary quarter in the city.

Bob Benson, chairman of the judging panel – which also includes Professor Charles McKean, professor of Scottish architectural history at Dundee University; and Lord William Prosser, former chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland – said: "We are looking for a winner who has a viable idea to create a socially-inclusive arts facility, which will add value to the arts in Scotland. The winning proposal will also have a physicality that will add to the capital's landscape.

"We felt the Scottish Book Trust, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and Edinburgh College of Art all have the potential to deliver these things."

The Hunter Building at the art school dates back to 1974. Its planned expansion comes just months after the college moved into a new complex in nearby West Port.

Principal Professor Ian Howard said: "The possibility of winning the arts prize is incredibly exciting.

"Our dramatic design for a creating a striking extension to the college's Lauriston Place presence will make an important contribution to the revitalisation of this part of the city, and enhance the provision of cultural facilities for the local community. The proposed gallery will offer the additional benefit of hosting students' work along with works from the college collection and touring exhibitions."

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop has spent years pursuing plans to create the UK's first purpose-built sculpture centre on the city's waterfront, but those plans would be hugely expanded if its bid is successful.

Director Irene Kernan said: "Although we are already planning to move on to our new site next year, the further expansion plans have only been drawn up in response to this competition being launched and they will only really go ahead if we are successful."