Arts at the Centre of the Community

The £6million redevelopment of Howden Park Centre in Livingston has created a landmark destination in West Lothian designed to make everyone – especially young people and their families – feel welcome and comfortable. A place where people can do art, see art and be surrounded by art, whether that is why they have visited or not. The work has been funded by West Lothian Council and a capital lottery grant of £1.3m from the Scottish Arts Council.

The design, by the internationally acclaimed Nicoll Russell Studios, features a new, plush, red 292 seat auditorium in the heart of the building . A new two-storey glass front repositions the entrance, making it more accessible to people approaching on public transport via the busy St John’s Hospital site as well as those using the road through the park.

The building retains its previous character though the number and flexibility of the spaces has been increased, so that people can take part in different arts activities at the same time. The redevelopment strengthens Howden Park Centre’s position as a first choice venue for national touring companies. Musicians and artists have fully-equipped backstage facilities, for the first time.

In its first 6 months following reopening more than 26,000 visits were made to 350 different performances, classes and other events.

Howden Park Centre recently became West Lothian’s newest 4 star visitor attraction. The accolade of “Scottish Tourist Board 4 star arts venue” was awarded by Visit Scotland following a detailed inspection of the stunning new centre by a Quality Advisor. The inspector commended its “truly excellent standards” of design, décor and maintenance as well as the broad range of events in the arts programme and the quality of the promotional brochure. He also gave it the highest award for levels of accessibility throughout the building.

New purpose-built offices make Howden Park Centre the creative and administrative hub of arts in West Lothian.

West Lothian has the youngest population of any local authority in Scotland. Howden Park Centre is now a major Livingston venue for young people, individually and with their families. Firefly Arts has a dedicated space for its programme of workshops and performances and the new building is also a venue for the Arts Education programme. The redevelopment makes the building fully accessible to every member of the community for the first time with lift access to the fist floor, and ramped access to the lower gallery and bistro space.

The redevelopment is the centrepiece of West Lothian Council’s arts strategy which began in 2005 with the refurbishment of the Regal Community Theatre in Bathgate. The third part of the strategy will see the transformation of the Burgh Halls in Linlithgow into a modern, fully accessible arts, heritage and community centre. The Burgh Halls is scheduled to reopen in Spring 2010.