Plans for arts venue take a step forward
FORMER ELECTRICITY GENERATOR BUILDING
PROPOSALS to create a new arts venue in a former electricity generator building have taken a massive step forward.
Long-term plans to refurbish the old Loughborough arts college have received a significant boost by being included in a £32 million bid for government cash to transform parts of the town.
The organisation behind the scheme, the Loughborough Generator Community Interest Company (CIC), has now been able to buy the prominent four-storey building in Frederick Street from Loughborough University, which paves the way for the next phase of the revamp.
It is working with developer Our Neighbourhood to create workspaces for creative businesses and a coffee shop in the building.
As part of the plans, an old hall in Packe Street, formerly home to large diesel generators, will also become a multi-media arts venue for live performances, exhibitions and events, as well as a permanent home for community arts organisation, Charnwood Arts.
Work has already started on the scheme with the first tenants expected to move in in January.
The CIC has already received support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Architectural Heritage Fund, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, the university and Charnwood Borough Council. The CIC will prepare detailed plans over the next few months and apply for further funding which it hopes will allow the works to start in autumn 2021.
Chairman of the CIC David PagettWright said: “The partnership with Our Neighbourhood has put new life into the project and enabled the acquisition of the building.
“Inclusion in the Town Investment Plan is a major boost, and if that funding is confirmed we will be able to crack on with the work next year.
“We are looking forward to a close working relationship with Our Neighbourhood and with Charnwood Arts in which the two parts of the building work together as a creative whole.”
Dr Jill Vincent, who is on the CIC Board and Charnwood Arts, said: “As well as creating a unique new arts venue, we will also tell the story of this much-loved building and how it contributed to the training of generations of Loughborough people to work in the town’s key industries and how, under the inspirational leadership of Herbert Schofield, it played a key role in the origins and development of Loughborough University.”
The board of the CIC has expressed its gratitude for the contribution made in getting to this point by Kevin Ryan, former boss of Charnwood Arts, who died earlier this year.
It said Kevin’s enthusiasm for the project remained a driving force behind it.