Work has started on the construction of a new £22.5m arts training and performance complex for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff. Willmott Dixon has been appointed to lead the development of the new facility, which has been designed by Hamiltons architects and is set to feature a 450-seat concert hall and a 160-seat courtyard theatre. An exhibition gallery and drama rehearsal studios will also

A groundbreaking ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction work on a new book storage facility for the Bodleian Library on the outskirts of Swindon, Wiltshire. Oxford University has acquired a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) site at South Marston for the high-density facility, which is expected to house eight million volumes of the library's low-demand items. The work forms part of a wider modernisation scheme at the New Bodleian

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) is to open its new location in New York on 22 September. The new 14,000sq ft space, located in a former machine shop, was designed by Maya Lin and will boast multiple exhibition galleries, interactive display kiosks, a multipurpose auditorium/classroom, a research centre and a space for multidisciplinary public programmes. MOCA’s core exhibition is called “With a single step: Stories in the making

Southampton City Council has named property company Grosvenor as the preferred bidder for the city's new £13m arts complex. Grosvenor's scheme, which will combine a mix of uses for the proposed site, was chosen over a number of competing bids. Plans drawn up by Grosvenor's partner architects, CZWG, include 75,000sq ft of gallery spaces, auditoriums and educational areas as well as restaurants and retail units. Councillor Royston Smith, cabinet member

A number of events and activities have been announced to mark the launch of a new centre for the arts and creativity in Glasgow, which will open its doors to the public on 12 September. The opening weekend of Trongate 103 will feature printing, self-portrait and board painting workshops, live music performances and an opportunity to view the archives of the Glasgow Print Studio (GPS). Housed within a renovated six-storey

A new multi-million pound concert hall is set to be built at the University of Birmingham (UB) to provide a new home for the institution's music department and facilities for the local community. Plans for the venue have been drawn up by Glenn Howells Architects to include a 450-seat auditorium designed to accommodate a range of performances – from solo voice to electro-acoustic – as well as associated research, teaching

A new multi-purpose public arts venue, which is currently under construction in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is to be called The Apex. St Edmondsbury Borough Council (SEBC) met on 29 July to approve the new name for the venue, which is scheduled to open in 2010, will incorporate a multi-purpose auditorium with a 500-seat capacity for theatre performance and seminars and standing capacity for 700 people for concert performances. Space

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal in north-eastern Wales was awarded UNESCO status at the 33rd session of the World Heritage Committee held in Seville, Spain, last week. Thomas Telford's pioneering engineering achievement of the Industrial Revolution is the nation's 28th UNESCO site. A further 10 cultural sites were added to the World Heritage List, including Stoclet House in Belgium, the Ruins of Loropéni in Burkina Faso and Mount Wutai in China.

Britain's oldest continuously working cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley, is to receive a makeover after a £608,800 grant from the Heritage Lottery fund (HLF). The revamp of the grade II-listed building will include the construction of a bar or café, repair work to the auditorium including the original Mollo and Egan plaster wall panels and barrel vaulted ceiling as well as the extension of the mezzanine. The restoration is

The Royal International Pavilion in Llangollen, North Wales, is set to be refurbished after receiving £1m from the Welsh Assembly Government in a bid to secure the future of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. Denbighshire County Council (DCC) will also provide an additional £600,000 towards work to upgrade the structure of the venue, which attracts visitors and participants from all over the world as part of the annual cultural festival. Welsh

Plans for the construction of a new a multi-million pound indoor and outdoor events venue in Pontardawe, South Wales, have received a funding boost from the Welsh Assembly Government. The Arena Pontardawe community enterprise organisation is behind the scheme, which has received funding to cover the costs of a four-day consultancy with a revenue specialist to help update the project's business plan and develop financial forecasts. It is hoped that

Plans for the creation of a new £2.5m landform, which will be the centerpiece of a proposed 29-hectare (71.7-acre) public park at Shotton, near Cramlington, have been submitted to the local authority. Initial designs for the Northumberlandia scheme were drawn up by artist and designer Charles Jencks as part of the Banks Group's proposals for a surface mine development in 2006, which was eventually approved by the government. However, revised

Tim Foster Architects has been appointed to redevelop Polka Children's Theatre in Wimbledon, south London, following a two-stage design competition and the completion of a feasibility study. Plans for the venue include the construction of a new domed structure at the rear of the site to house a new auditorium for children aged between one and five-years-old, while the existing auditorium will be remodelled. The Polka Children's Theatre scheme also

A new multi-million pound entertainment venue has officially opened in Livingston, which will provide a new home for West Lothian Council's (WLC) arts service and a local youth theatre company. The £6m transformation of Howden Park Centre, which was designed by Dundee-based architects Nicholl Russell Studios, has been funded by the council, along with a £1.29m lottery grant from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC). Facilities at the venue, which has

Concerns have been raised over the future of more than 80 theatre buildings across the UK after the Theatres Trust published its latest research into venues at risk from dereliction or destruction. According to the 2009 Theatre Buildings at Risk Register, the Opera House at Blackpool's Winter Gardens complex is among the venues most at risk due to a potential threat of demolition, while the Grade II-listed Derby Hippodrome has

Colchester Borough Council (CBC) has announced it has appointed the construction company behind the London Eye attraction, Mace Group, to help get plans for the town's new art gallery back on track. The proposed Visual Arts Facility (VAF) is set to provide Colchester with a new purpose-built centre of excellence and innovation for culture, education and learning, and had been expected to open to the public at the end of

Architect David Chipperfield has been commissioned to design a new gallery for the Jumex Foundation’s Coleccion Jumex in Mexico. The Coleccion Jumex is run by Jumex, a fruit juice company, and features contemporary art from around the world. The new 4,000sq m gallery will double the site’s exhibition space and will be host to 2,000 pieces of art from the collection. Work is expected to being in March next year.

Welsh art group, Coastal Galleries, has announced plans to expand into Swansea with the August opening of a new flagship arts centre at the city's historic Ice House. The group, which currently has showrooms at Narberth and Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, has agreed a deal to lease two-thirds of the Grade II-listed building from the Landas Group. It is hoped that a South Wales-based restaurant company will occupy the remaining third

Plans for the construction of new multi-million pound entertainment arena in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, have received a boost after the government agreed to help fund the scheme. Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, has confirmed that it will invest in Leeds City Council's (LCC) proposals for the 12,500-seat venue, despite concerns that the project will threaten the future of the 13,000-seat Sheffield Arena. Tom Riordan, chief executive

Boris Johnson's latest initiative to improve the lives of Londoners aims to boost the number of volunteers in the capital. Johnson said: "Volunteering is good for individuals and great for London in tough economic times. By giving your time, whether a one-off few hours or a regular commitment, we can both help to make the capital a more civilised, pleasant place and reap the rewards of putting something back into

Work is set to get underway on the two-phase restoration of Bishopsgate Institute, one of London's most iconic cultural venues, after it received a £1.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The first stage of the scheme includes the transformation of the institute's lower ground floor to provide a refurbished studio space, a new library learning space and an archive store, as well as the installation of toilets, changing

The long-term future of the Lyric Theatre and Cinema in Carmarthen, south west Wales, has been safeguarded after it was awarded a £300,000 grant from the Arts Council of Wales (ACW). The funding will go towards a £1.5m revamp of the venue, which will result in it beoming a specialist theatre. The decision to remove the Lyric’s cinema aspect was made following an announcement that a six-screen Apollo cinema multiplex

A design competition to transform the 1.33-mile, fire-damaged Southend Pier in Southend-on-Sea has been launched by the borough council. In collaboration with the Landscape Institute and the Royal Institute of British Architects, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has created a design brief with the intentions of re-establishing the pier as a "must-see destination for all visitors". The council wants to transform the Grade II-listed pier, built in 1830, into a cultural destination

The US$300m (£193.5m, 220m euro) Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, US, has opened to public this week. The 24,500sq m (264,000sq ft) extension, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano has increased the museum's floor space to more than a million square feet, making it the second largest art museum in the US. The three-storey extension, which is covered by a sun-shade system allowing natural light to

Southampton's Mayflower Theatre is set to undergo an extensive £1.6m refurbishment this summer in a bid to upgrade the venue's backstage and production facilities. The theatre will close for 12 weeks between June and August in order to allow the work to be carried out, although the box office and its conference and meeting room facilities will operate as normal. It is expected that the new backstage area, which will

Construction work on the £35m Aylesbury Waterside Theatre has reached topping out stage. The concept for the theatre, scheduled to open next year, was developed by Aylesbury Vale District Council and theatre designers RHWL Arts Team. The venue will have a 1,200-seat auditorium that can be converted into a 1,800-capacity hall for standing events, and a 225-seat suite for smaller events including dance, drama, meetings and conferences. The new theatre,

New plans for the radical mixed-use redevelopment of London's Grade II-listed Commonwealth Institute building in Holland Park have angered heritage groups. The designs have been submitted to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBK&C) by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), with the intention of converting the building into a possible new home for the Design Museum. The redevelopment, led by developers Chelsfield Partners, includes the removal of