Edinburgh’s Telford College’s are delighted to hear that its partners at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop have heard yesterday, 26 October 2010, that they have won a £3M Arts Funding Prize from the Scottish Community Foundation.
The anonymous donor funding the prize has given the Scottish Community Foundation – a charity that specialises in supporting philanthropic giving – the green light to award £3M to the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to create a world class research and production facility at its Newhaven site.
Telford’s Fine Art Curriculum Leader and Board Member of Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Alan Holligan said:
“Edinburgh’s Telford College has had a long relationship with the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop so we are therefore delighted to hear of this generous investment to develop in north Edinburgh a state-of-the-art sculpture centre. There is nothing like this currently anywhere else in the UK and it will give our learners the opportunity to continue to develop their industry knowledge and skills in a creative environment alongside professional artists and creative and cultural entrepreneurs.”
The Creative Laboratories will provide a mix of indoor and open-air workspaces around a central courtyard. Together with the sculpture centre, the Laboratories will create a vibrant cultural hub of benefit to the whole city. The addition of viewing areas and a café will open up the space to visitors. The primary purpose of the competition was to fund a building of exceptional architectural and cultural merit within the City of Edinburgh, which will enable residents and visitors to the city to experience or participate in the arts.
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s Creative Laboratories beat off stiff competition for the prize from the Scottish Book Trust and Edinburgh College of Art. Designed by Sutherland Hussey Architects, the Creative Laboratories will be a unique new building situated alongside Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s new £5m sculpture centre.
Director of Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Irene Kernan, said:
“This is an amazing opportunity for Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop which will enable us to fulfill our ambitions to create a world class sculpture centre in the city. The Arts Funding Prize represents a major investment in future generations of artists and will be a major resource for our local community in Newhaven as well as the city as a whole.
“The partnerships Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop has with Telford has been hugely successful and the Creative Laboratories will now allow us to expand our partnership and to further develop interdisciplinary practices and provide graduates with the stepping stones to a career in the arts.”
Professor Bill Scott Chair of the Board of Directors at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop said:
“The working partnership with Telford and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop demonstrates collaboration at its best – Edinburgh’s Telford College was the first college to really connect with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and the development now of the Creative Laboratories will offer huge learning experiences to students.”
Chair of the Judging Panel, Bob Benson said:
“The panel felt Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s proposal offered the most inspiring combination of exciting architecture and cultural impact. Its Newhaven location will expand the artistic geography of the city, and create a unique cultural venue in this part of Edinburgh.
“Along with offering our wholehearted congratulations to the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, the panel would also like to commend the Scottish Community Foundation for the smooth running of this award. It ensured the best projects were put forward for this prize and enabled the donor to make a high profile contribution to Edinburgh’s cultural landscape while preserving their anonymity.”
The Centre is expected to open in 2013.
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