Theatres take centre stage in funding round success
ONE of the East Midlands’ key arts and entertainment centres has secured £1.5m in funding which will pave the way for major improvement works.
The grant from Arts Council England, along with £1.8m from Nottingham City Council, will support the £3.3m Royal Transformation Project being planned by Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall.
Funding experts at Focus Consultants, which is based in the city, worked alongside the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall team to create the masterplan to develop the two venues, and more recently has been the project manager, quantity surveyor and business planner for the successful Arts Council England Round 2 application.
Robert Sanderson, managing director for the venue, said: “We are so delighted in this vote of confidence from the Arts Council England and from Nottingham City Council. I would also like to thank Marsh Grochowski Architects and Focus Consultants who led the professional team, for their expertise, advice and support throughout the bid process.”
Focus, which is based at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, and has offices in London, Leicester, and Boston and Aubourn in Lincolnshire, specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering projects across the UK.
Since its launch in 1994, Focus has helped to secure more than £953m of grant assistance for a range of projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.3bn of projects and programmes.
Focus partner Steven Fletcher said: “The ambitious programme of building and development works for the Royal Concert Hall and the Theatre Royal is designed to ensure the sustainable future of two of the largest arts and entertainment venues in the East Midlands, and we are very pleased to hear that the Arts Council England Round 2 bid has been successful, paving the way for phase one of the work to begin this summer.”
The Royal Transformation Project aims to increase daytime use of the venues by improving facilities and underused spaces such as meeting rooms, foyer spaces, the café bar and roof terraces. The project will also see accessibility improvements to ensure that the new facilities can be used by everyone.
Developments include improving the building façade and streetscape on South Sherwood Street by creating a two-storey canopy and a new entrance way to both the Theatre Royal and the Royal Concert Hall, and remodelling the Box Office and Royal Concert Hall entrance foyer.
Work will take place in two phases – phase one during summer and autumn 2016 and the second phase over the summer and autumn of 2017.
