graduate urges council not to veto peacock centre plan
Online petition to support art gallery proposal
Published:
A new campaign has been started in support of plans to build a £14million contemporary art gallery in Aberdeen.
Gray’s School of Art graduate Katie Guthrie is asking people to sign an online petition which urges the city council not to veto plans for a new Peacock arts centre in the Union Terrace Gardens proposals.
Development body Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future – the driving force behind the scheme aimed at giving the city centre a new focus – said the arts centre had always been a key part of the regeneration plans.
The petition was posted on the internet last Thursday through social networking site Facebook and has attracted 539 signatures so far.
Miss Guthrie, who graduated with a degree in painting in 2006, states the arts centre will be a “fantastic facility for both tourists and the local community”.
“It will provide Union Terrace Gardens with better access, a safer environment and a new focal point without being too detrimental to its thriving ecosystem and landscape which has been evolving since the 17th century.
“It has now been blown out of the water, and looks unlikely to survive in the face of new plans to deck over Union Terrace Gardens by Sir Ian Wood.”
Peacock Visual Arts director Lindsay Gordon welcomed the new campaign and said it was “fabulous and encouraging” that so many people had signed the petition already.
Future’s chairman Tom Smith said: “I must emphasise that a contemporary arts centre is, and always has been, a key feature of our vision to regenerate Aberdeen’s city centre and transform Union Terrace Gardens and Denburn Valley. We remain committed to ensuring that our vision is delivered and this is clearly illustrated in the technical appraisal study, which states that a contemporary arts centre is integral to each of the three options. It is important that the public are made fully aware of this.
“If everyone is committed to radically transforming the heart of our city then we must all work together to ensure we realise this vision.”
Scottish Enterprise’s feasibility study into the proposals revealed it would be possible to cover over Union Terrace Gardens to create a £140million “people’s square” within five years.
Sir Ian, chairman of city-based oil services giant Wood Group who has pledged £50million of his own money to the project, has previously said an arts centre would be an “extremely important” part of the new project.
The new square could have three underground levels, the first of them offering the potential for Peacock Visual Arts’ planned new centre.
The plans will be put out to public consultation shortly.
