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

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre (REP) is set to undergo a £193m overhaul as part of a joint scheme to redevelop the Library of Birmingham. The joint venture development, led by Birmingham City Council and The REP, is designed by Dutch architect Mecanoo to create a 31,000sq ft "centre for culture and knowledge" in Centenary Square. The library will be built adjacent to the theatre and integrated with The REP at

Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) has announced that it is to contribute £75,000 towards a £400,000 scheme to establish a new theatre on the town waterfront, which is scheduled to open next year. The grant will go towards fitting out the new 220-seat Witchbottle Theatre, which will provide a new base for the Red Rose Chain, and will be used for theatre and cinema performances, as well as including a café,

The completed £13.5m expansion of east London's Whitechapel Gallery is expected to open 5 April. The gallery, re-designed by Belgian architects Robbrecht & Daem and Witherford Watson Mann, is almost double the size after it merged with the adjacent Passmore Edwards library (built in 1892) increasing the 3,000sq ft space by 78 per cent. New features include three galleries dedicated to international art collections, new art commissioned by the gallery's

Plans to renovate the Sydney Opera House in Australia are threatened after the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to back the estimated AUS$900m (£433m, €466m, US$630m) project claiming there was better use for the money. The announcement came the day after the New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees said the restoration was under "active consideration" by the budget committee. If the seven-year-long renewal project was to go ahead, the opera

A gala event has been held to mark the closure of the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Kent, which is set to undergo a £25.6m revamp after the local authority approved plans for the redevelopment of the venue. Canterbury City Council (CCC) voted in favour of the proposals on 19 March, which will include a new 1,200-seat auditorium with improved acoustics and sightlines, as well as a second, smaller performance space

Manchester City Council has made a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to secure funding towards the restoration of the historic Heaton Hall. The council has earmarked the restoration of the hall as the final part of a three-phase programme of improvements at Heaton Park in North Manchester, which has already seen the renovation of four of the park's other historic listed buildings including the Dower House

Plans for the construction of a new book storage facility near Swindon, Wiltshire, have been unveiled by Oxford University as part of a new modernisation scheme at the Bodleian Library. The university has already acquired a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) site at South Marston on the outskirts of the Wiltshire town for the new high-density facility, which will house eight million volumes of low-demand items. It is expected that work on the

SMG Europe is to take over the management of the Whitley Bay Playhouse theatre after North Tyneside Council (NTC) approved plans to enter into an operating agreement with the company. It is hoped that the deal will secure the future of the venue, which has been closed since August 2007, although will reopen in the autumn following an extensive £8m refurbishment programme. The revamp of the Playhouse theatre has included

Italy's newest art gallery, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) in Rome, is set for a 2009 launch. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the museum to be reminiscent of an ‘urban campus’, a building that goes beyond interior spaces to include the entire city. The project includes two museums – MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – which will revolve around a full-height grand hall that connects with a

The refurbishment of the Liverpool's Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre has been allocated an architect following a public display of seven shortlisted designs. London-based Allford Hall Monaghan Morris' (AHMM) £10m proposal for the 71-year-old building was chosen and includes an enlarged entrance space for the 1,250-seat theatre – a 20-year-old rock music venue – with a digital screen and rooftop restaurant and bar. The middle two floors will also be organised

The Tower Theatre Company (TTC) has unveiled plans to build a new theatre on a site confirmed by Museum of London Archaeology as being the location of London's first purpose-built playhouse. An excavation of the site in Shoreditch, which is currently occupied by a disused warehouse, has uncovered what is believed to be the inner wall of The Theatre, a polygonal theatre built by James Burbage in 1576. Trustees of

Construction work on a new building to house Belfast’s ageing Lyric Theatre is now underway. The £18m new build — designed by architects O’Donnell & Tuomey — will be constructed at a new location in order to provide a theatre almost four times the size of the original 1968 site. The Lyric’s new home will comprise a 394-seat main auditorium, a 150-seat studio theatre, a rehearsal room, riverfront foyers and

The Scottish Government has been called upon to help provide funding for the creation of a new landmark building on Dundee's waterfront that could house a proposed Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. Kevin Keenan, chair of the Dundee Waterfront Board (DWB), wants to see an iconic 'anchor' building developed as part of the wider regeneration of the city's waterfront, in order to capture the public's imagination and to act as

The Ulster Hall, a historic 150-year old cultural venue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has reopened following an extensive multi-million pound refurbishment scheme lasting two years. It is the first scheme to be completed as part of a series of major renovation projects taking place at buildings across the city, with St Malachy's Church, the City Hall and the Ulster Museum set to reopen later this year. Work on the £8.5m

Southampton City Council (SCC) has launched a search for a development partner to take on the transformation of the city's former Tyrrell and Green department store as part of plans for a new cultural quarter. At the heart of plans for the mixed-use development, which has been designed by Assael and could cost up to £50m, is the creation of a new arts complex. A hotel, restaurants, cafés and education

Plans to create a new seafront contemporary art venue in Hastings, East Sussex, have been formally submitted to the local authority by the Jerwood Foundation. If Hastings Borough Council (HBC) approves the scheme, the Jerwood Gallery will house the foundation's collection of 20th and 21st century British art, as well as acting as a regional venue for the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. The proposed building, designed by HAT Projects, will

A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in Gloucester. The 100-year-old museum, which attracts more than 60,000 visitors each year, will undergo a £5m revamp which will add more than 300sq m of new temporary exhibition space and a new dedicated gallery to house the museum's collection of Dutch, Italian and British masterpieces. Fundraising for the project has begun, with Gloucestershire-based Summerfield

Victoria's new AUD$74.5m (£33.64m, 37.6m euro, US$47.75m) purpose-built music facility, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC), has opened in Australia – 30 years after being planned. The facility, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) architects in collaboration with UK-based Acoustic Engineer Raf Orlowski of Arup Acoustics, offers a 1,000-seat concert hall called Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. It is accompanied by a second 150-seat performance space, with a 100-seat dining area and

Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) has approved in principle proposals to take over responsibility for the redevelopment of the resort's open air theatre in order to ensure the scheme goes ahead despite the downturn. The revamp of the theatre is currently included in a development agreement with Benchmark Leisure, which was appointed by the council in December 2002 to transform 55 acres (22.3 hectares) of land in the town's North Bay

Plans put forward by seven shortlisted architects for the refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool have been put on public display until the end of the month. Designs for the revamp of the 1,250-seat theatre, which has one of the biggest revolve stages outside the West End of London, can be viewed until 27 February in the Architruck, the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) purpose-built

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed its winning design for an extension to the Kunsthaus Zurich art gallery in Zurich, Switzerland. The early 20th century building will continue to house the Old Masters, Giacometti collection, Swiss art and popular large-scale exhibitions, whereas the new 20,500sq m (220,660sq ft) extension will display classic modernism and art starting from the 1960s, as well as the Bührle collection. Photograph: courtesy if David Chipperfield Architects