Wales Millennium Centre unveils plans for new venue
Florence Lockheart
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
The new space will be present immersive performance alongside facilities for production, rehearsal and training
Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) has announced plans for the launch of a new ‘digital-first’ performance venue. The 550-capacity space will be located opposite the Centre and will be the first stand-alone building that WMC has added since it opened in 2014.
The new venue will be ‘dedicated to exploring the power of immersive experiences’ and will be created in collaboration with Cardiff Council as a part of a broader Cardiff Live development, which will also include new office spaces for Cardiff Council, exhibition halls, and ‘community areas’. The redevelopment will be built by Goldbeck Construction.
(Image courtesy of Goldbeck Construction)
WMC chief content officer Graeme Farrow said: ‘Storytelling is always developing. This new space will continue our work at the intersection of technology and the arts, allowing artists to explore and experiment with multimedia approaches to telling stories. Its flexibility will ensure that as new tools and technologies emerge, artists will always have access to the cutting-edge resources they need to push boundaries. We’re excited to offer even more creative opportunities to young people and artists, and to create a venue that evolves with the ever-changing digital landscape.’
As well as performance space, the new venue will offer facilities for production, rehearsal and training.The initiative, which has been in development for five years, builds on the success of WMC’s existing immersive venue Bocs, which opened in 2022. It also builds on WMC’s role as the official Welsh partner of a three-year cross-UK ‘Immersive Arts’ consortium, allowing WMC to further support skills development in extended reality.
(Image courtesy of Goldbeck Construction)
The consortium will also award £3.6 million in grant funding to artists based in the UK between 2024 and 2027, while the WMC itself will be launching a new award for an artist to develop their vision over a year (further details of this will be released in the new year).
Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for investment and development, Cllr Russell Goodway, said: This project is a big part of our ambition for Cardiff Live and Atlantic Wharf - driving the next phase of Cardiff Bay as a cultural destination. It will epitomise our approach of supporting production as well as performance, providing facilities to develop our own cultural offer as well as our local communities.’
