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

Work on the foyer at the £20.3m Colston Hall music and performance venue in Bristol has been completed. Main contractors Willmott Dixon handed over the keys to the building to Bristol City Council at a ceremony on 20 April to mark the completion of the work. The foyer, which features an atrium crossed by bridges at upper floor levels, was designed by architects at Levitt Bernstein Associates. The bridges connect

Plans for the £1bn transformation of the former Ferrier Estate and neighbouring Kidbrooke area in south-east London, have been approved by Greenwich Council and will include an array of leisure facilities. As part of the Kidbrooke Vision masterplan, Thomas Tallis secondary school will be redeveloped to include a dual-use gymnastics centre, martial arts dojo, a flood lit all-weather sports pitch and a six-court sports hall, designed for county and regional

Plans for two new temporary pavilions for Chicago's Milennium Park, US, have been revealled to mark the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham's 1909 masterplan, which outlined the controlled growth of city. Designed by London-based Zaha Hadid and Amsterdam-based UNStudio's Ben Van Berkel, the recyclable pavilions will be installed in the park this June and will be open to the public until October. The project was commissioned to celebrate Burnham's masterplan

Construction work on the travelling art exhibition space, Prada Transformer, has been completed and the installation is being prepared for its public opening on 25 April in the front yard of the 16th century Gyeonghui Palace in Seoul, Korea. Designed by Dutch architects Rem Koolhaas, partner of Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), on behalf of fashion designer Prada, the structure will host a cinema festival, a contemporary art exhibition and

Work is now underway on the construction of a new £12m centre of excellence for dance in Leeds, which will become the new home of the Northern Ballet Theatre (NBT) and the Phoenix Dance Theatre (PDT). The new six-storey venue, which has been designed by the Strategic Design Alliance, a partnership between LCC's in-house architectural consultancy and Jacobs Architecture, will also house Leeds Metropolitan University's (LMU) new dance degree courses

Plans for the long-term future of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, which includes a multi-million pound refurbishment, have gone before the city council's Regeneration Select Committee. Discussions are now set to get underway between Liverpool City Council and trustees of the 1,250-seat venue in a bid to secure a lease agreement after the select committee admitted that it was impressed with a presentation by the Royal Court

Work is set to get underway on the restoration and redevelopment of a historic music hall in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, after the scheme secured a £1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The Shropshire Portal scheme will include the development of a new, sustainable museum and visitor information centre at the 13th century, Grade II*-listed Vaughan's Mansion and the Grade II-listed Music Hall and Assembly Rooms dating back to 1835.

A Grade II-listed gallery in Bedfordshire, which dates back to 1841 and has been closed to the public since the 1970s, has been reopened following the completion of a £2.5m refurbishment. The revamp of the Bedford Gallery marks the first phase of a wider £11.3m regeneration scheme designed to unite the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Bedford Museum buildings as part of a new flagship complex for the town. Funding

The Shetland Arts Development Agency (SADA) is set to begin construction on its new £12m music, cinema and arts venue on the Shetland Islands in three weeks. The Mareel centre, on track to open in 2010, will be situated on Lerwick's waterfront, has been designed to drive Scotland's burgeoning cultural and economic development forward. Although the development is led by SADA, the Shetland Islands Council and a stakeholder group consisting