An innovative north-east art gallery has closed after less than six months and is moving to a new location.
Artist and gallery owner Melissa Arcaro has taken the decision to shut her Balmoor Terrace premises and team up with local development group Peterhead Project.
The move will see Arcaro Arts reopen in the town’s Marischal street, a location Miss Arcaro hopes will boost interest in Peterhead art.
She said: “It’s to try and stay involved in the town centre and in the regeneration scheme.
“Peterhead Projects asked me to come in and it was nice to be sought out. It’s a fresh start I guess.
“Perhaps where we are just now isn’t the best location. I think it’s the right time to move with the potential for the town centre to be so busy during the Christmas period.
“Hopefully it will bring in a new audience, and introduce new work to the people of Peterhead.”
She stressed the decision to close the current space in mid-November was not the end of Arcaro arts, just a new chapter.
When Arcaro Arts opened in the old Brethren meeting hall in Peterhead’s Balmoor Terrace, Banff and Buchan MP Eilidh Whiteford said: “It will breathe new life into the town centre of Peterhead and offers great opportunities for local artists to exhibit their work.”
Arcaro Arts has worked with senior pupils at Peterhead Academy to display the best of their coursework to the local community.
Miss Arcaro is heavily involved in artistic projects in the Buchan area.
Earlier this year she and fellow Peterhead artist Scott Patrick created a white horse mural on Strichen’s old railway bridge, as homage to the giant quartz White Horse on nearby Mormond Hill.
The work was commissioned by Strichen Community Council and partly funded by Aberdeenshire Council.
Peterhead Projects is a social enterprise company, owned and led by members of the community, which runs a host of initiatives in the town.
Among them are a social recycling centre, the town’s Lido Caravan Park as well as the Trading Post in Marischal Street, the space which will soon be occupied by Arcaro Arts.
