Plans to open a major art gallery and artists’ studios in a run-down part of Newcastle have received another setback.
Councillors on Newcastle City Council have been told that the cost of refurbishing an old printworks to house the Waygood Gallery will cost another £1 million more than previously supposed. Total costs for the project have now ballooned from an original estimate of £4.7 million to nearly £10.5 million and the opening date has been put back from 2005 to 2010 or even 2011.
The council may have to sell off parts of the building in a bid to recover some of its costs.
The Waygood project was set up in 1995 by artist Helen Smith as a gallery and studios where artists from the North East could exhibit. When the building was put up for sale, Ms Smith persuaded the council to back a plan to turn the whole building into an arts complex which would help regenerate the entire area of High Bridge.
But a catalogue of mishaps have frustrated the project. Delays over crane access meant the work had to be retendered, a Victorian well was discovered on the site, builders found structural damage to walls and the building was hit by floods. The Waygood has been relocated to the Byker estate during construction work.
Tony Durcan, the city council’s head of culture, said: “We have examined a range of options on the use and ownership of space within the building; to ensure the scheme meets the objectives of the project and secures the long term sustainability of Waygood the artist studios will form the heart of the project; we will dispose of floorspace within the building which is not part of the current capital development.”
Among the possibilities is that a cafe, restaurant or performance venue could be included to the complex.
Helen Smith, creative director of Waygood, was not available for comment as AI went to press.

Southampton City Council is to sell part of its arts collection to pay for its planned £15 million Titanic Museum.
City councillors have agreed in principle to review Southampton Art gallery’s collection of 3,500 art works to see which of them could be sold. Officials have already approached the Museums Libraries and Archives Council to get advice under the MLA’s code for disposal.
Councillor John Hannides, who holds the leisure and culture portfolio in Southampton said much of the city’s collection was in storage and was unlikely to be seen by the public. “We do have some challenging and difficult decisions to make about our current collection.”
But he added, “We are following clear professional standards to establish priorities and determine whether a few items in the art collection could be disposed of legally and in accordance with nationally-recognised ethical guidelines. We will work closely with partners to realise the value of any such items. Any monies raised will be reinvested in the new heritage museum for the city and provide clear benefit to the Art Gallery.”
A decision on which items will be sold would be taken in the autumn,
MLA chief executive Roy Clare said, “We will work closely with the city and with other experts in this field to help bring about an outcome for the people of Southampton that strikes an appropriate balance between maintaining the collections and enabling people of all ages and backgrounds to engage with the stories that historic objects can tell.”

But Anne Anderson, chairman of Friends of Southampton Museum and Art Galleries, has asked for a referendum before any of the city’s art collection can be sold. “The people of Southampton should be asked what they want to happen to their art – it’s not up to those in the council chamber to decide,” she said.

The Museums. Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is reviewing its Museum Accreditation Scheme, which sets nationally agreed standards for museums in the UK. The MLA is examining how to update and streamline the scheme, which has been running for 20 years and has involved more than 1800 museums. Roy Clare, MLA chef executive, said: “Our objectives are to simplify the bureaucracy of the existing process, extend the scheme to include archives and ensure that we find a way to hear and reflect the views of visitors and users.” An advisory panel has been convened to oversee the development of the standard and a series of consultation events will ask museum professionals for their views.

New Scottish culture minister Michael Russell has hinted that he may be willing to accede to Glasgow’s demands for extra funding for its museums.
Speaking at the first summit conference of Scotland’s museums sector, Mr Russell acknowledged that there was an “an obvious divide” between local and national provision of museum services.
He told more than 60 museum leaders “The gap in the middle is seeing many excellent and nationally significant museums and collections facing up to difficult challenges.” The summit would discuss this issue “which encompasses…. the unique situation of Glasgow’s impressive collections” as well as Scotland’s industrial museums, he added.
The summit follows a major campaign by Glasgow City Council to redress the perceived imbalance between its funding major national institutions like the Kelvingrove, while many of Edinburgh’s museums are funding by the Scottish government.
Bailie Liz Cameron, Chair of Culture and Sport Glasgow, told the conference
“Everyone recognises the unique nature of Glasgow’s museums and their importance to both the cultural and economic health of our nation.”
Other speakers at the summit included former First Minister Henry McLeish, who now chairs the Scottish Mining Museum, Joanne Orr, CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland and Gordon Rintoul, Director of National Museums Scotland.

Margate’s regeneration, based on its £17 million Turner Contemporary Gallery, is under threat because of the recession.
Plans for a top quality hotel and new leisure centre have been abandoned and English Heritage, one of the main partners behind the arts-based regeneration programme, fears that revised plans will not be enough to attract and keep visitors to the town.
Developers dropped out of building a four-star hotel next to the gallery last year - but Kent County Council, which has been the prime mover in the regeneration plan, wants to place a budget hotel there instead. Even then the hotel will not be ready in time for the gallery’s opening in 2011.
But English Heritage’s urban panel says that a luxury hotel is “critical” to the success of the Turner Contemporary and warned the county council to “resist cheap and inappropriate development”.
The panel added that plans to re-open Margate’s iconic Dreamland leisure and amusement centre should be allowed to go ahead without the need to build flats and houses on the sit. The panel said: “We see no merit in delaying the scheme because the grander development package can no longer be built. The remainder of the site can be brought forward, with minimal investment, as an events space.”

Derby Playhouse is to be renamed Derby Theatre in a deal between the city council and the University of Derby which will see the council take over programming for the venue.
The deal has been announced after months of negotiations between the University, which has taken over the lease of the venue from the Playhouse’s former artistic director, Stephen Edwards and the city, which has been running its own theatre programme at other venues.
It means the former Playhouse theatre will reopen in September- nearly two years after it closed in December 2007 following a decision by the city council and Arts Council England to withdraw their financial backing.
The theatre’s studio will become a resource for students while the city’s arts and entertainment arm, Derby Live, will be responsible for the main auditorium, producing its own work and inviting touring companies.
Students will also have access to the main stage five times a year. Huw Davies, University of Derby dean of faculty for arts, design and technology, said the university would establish a postgraduate course in theatre production, based at the Derby Theatre. The arrangement would allow students to work in a professional environment, he said.
The move spells the end of the Playhouse’s former board to stage a comeback at the theatre. Jonathan Powers, chair of Derby Playhouse Ltd, said he was disappointed that their bid to take over the programming of the venue had been unsuccessful. Powers said the company would maintain theatre production and planned to remount five productions.

Major names are backing a plan to revive the stricken Civic Trust, which closed in April after a financial crisis.
The National Trust, Royal Institute of British Architects and English Heritage are supporting the creation of the Civic Society Initiative, which aims to take over the Trust’s role in support small heritage and amenity organisations in England.
Speaking at a launch event for the CSI, BBC personlality and former president of the Trust Rhys Jones, slammed politicians for their lack of interest in Britain’s heritage. “What I think is that politicians believe is that heritage and conservation are not political issues. They don’t think they need to be answerable, to be held to account and they don’t care.”
Rhys Jones said a national umbrella body was needed to give a louder voice to the hundreds of small local bodies which looked after local heritage because, “the worst things that happen [to heritage] in Britain don’t happen at a local level, they happen as a result of central policies”.
He added that the Civic Trust, which was founded more than 50 years ago, had saved London from urban motorways and helped save Covent Garden from demolition in the 1970s.
The CSI needs to raise £50,000 for a “fighting fund” says its director Tony Burton, who has stepped down from a senior post at the National Trust to head the new body. A convention for the UK’s 700 civic societies and groups is to be held in October to set up the new organisation and a national roadshow will canvass the opinion of regional societies. Meanwhile, English Heritage will run the trust’s Heritage Open Day schemes

The strange “lost” Shakespeare play The History of Cardenio, based on a character from Cervantes’s Don Quixote which had been translated into English in 1612, only a few years before the Bard’s death, is getting an airing at Otterton Mill, the restaurant, shop, art gallery, craft ship and music venue near Sidmouth in Devon. There is no original script and the storyline appears to be based on not much more than hearsay, but so far as it is known it has been adapted by Bernard Richards and is being staged at the 1000-year-old mill by the appropriately named (read on) Alternative Cambridge Theatre Company on June 20. The date may seem salient – the day before Midsummer Night – and the play tells the story of four young folk, a libertine, an abandoned young woman, another who is pursued and man who has been betrayed in love. “The play fits snugly into the schema of a Shakespearean tragi-comedy with all the usual plot twists and turns before its final resolution” says the publicity. And the fact that it seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to a Shakespeare play written and performed at least a decade before this one could have been staged need not spoil your enjoyment of what promises to be a very jolly evening.

Endowments, once a rude word because of the length of time the cash had to sit idle before it was worth anything useful, are now the buzz in the arts as a hedge against recession. The London Symphony Orchestra has just launched its own with an extraordinary gesture from the band’s 81-year-old former principal conductor Colin Davis. He has expressed his love for the orchestra with which he has been associated for half a century by digging deep into his own pocket for “a significant amount of money”, the LSO, says, to set the ball rolling towards a £1m target.

Meanwhile, more help in the way of influential support may be on the way. I gather an All Party Parliamentary Group on Classical Music is about to be set up with the aim of becoming an “interface between British orchestras’ on and off-stage activities, the wider classical music industry, including broadcasters and the recording industry, and key decision makers and opinion formers”. Whatever that means, it can’t be bad, and it has the support of the Association of British Orchestras. The chairman is to be the Conservative MP Stephen O’Brien who, as well as being shadow health minister, is pretty nifty on the ivories and sees himself as a promising conductor, too, though he probably won’t be troubling Sir Colin’s reputation…

Banks are keeping a pretty low profile, but quietly their commitment to the arts is continuing and they are making good business use of it too. HSBC is sponsoring the British Museum’s Indian Summer and on the back of it are commitment not necessarily connected with the BM’s agenda. “Taking inspiration from the Indian Summer season we have developed a series of events and activities that will explore themes of life and work in India as a summer-long celebration of Indian culture” says the bank’s European boss who rejoices in the name of Zed Cama. As well as poster advertising, these cultural activities include business events and forums with the FT, partnerships with Indian business and cultural organisations, and cricket. So the arts really are at the top table now.