Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts

The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), previously the Gardner Arts Centre, is an arts centre, part of the University of Sussex at Falmer, Brighton and Hove, UK. Its public programme includes performance, dance, live art, film, music, discussion and debate. The building is mid-century modern Grade II* listed, designed by Basil Spence.

Not to be confused with the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester.
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
The building in 2010.
Former namesGardner Arts Centre
LocationUniversity of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton and Hove, UK
Coordinates50.8646°N 0.0899°W / 50.8646; -0.0899
TypeArts centre
Genre(s)Performance, dance, live art, film, music
Capacity350 (seated) / 480 (standing)
Opened1969
Website
attenboroughcentre.com

The venue operated as the Gardner Arts Centre from 1969 to 2007, then closed, was refurbished and reopened in 2016 as the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.[1][2]

Public programme

According to the venue's web site, its public programme includes "performance, dance, live art, film, music, discussion & debate and digital practices".[3]

The building

The building is mid-century modern Grade II* listed,[4][5] designed by Basil Spence in the early 1960s. Spence's design consisted of three windowless red-brick rings; the innermost ring formed an auditorium.[6] The concentric circles relate to the unity of all the arts.[7]

Its capacity is 350 (seated) or 480 (standing).[8]

Name

The venue's name is in commemortion of the University's former Chancellor, the late actor, director and producer, Richard Attenborough. It is also a memorial to Attenborough's daughter Jane, a Sussex alumnus, who died in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[1]

History

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation helped to fund its construction, which started in 1966. It opened for use in November 1969.[6]

It operated as the Gardner Arts Centre from 1969 to 2007.[1] It was Britain’s first campus-based university arts centre.[9]

It closed at the end of the spring 2007 season, when money ran out. The building was leased from the University of Sussex and needed about £14 million of improvements. Also, in 2006 Brighton and Hove City Council withdrew its annual £30,000 grant in favour of other city centre arts groups; and in 2007 the Arts Council stopped its funding.[10][11][12] It was subsequently used as a storage space.[6]

Refurbishment addressed the building's previous shortcomings for contemporary use, making it an interdisciplinary space, in the following ways: the auditorium is flexible with end-stage, theatre in the round and thrust stage arrangement seating; rehearsal studios; specialist lighting, sound and audio-visual equipment; a gallery; rehearsal studios; and a new café and bar.[6][13] The building exterior remained the same.

It reopened to the public in 2016, renamed the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.[1]

See also

References
  1. "Lord Attenborough arts centre due to open in Brighton". BBC News. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  2. Wright, Philippine (6 August 2015). "A modern education: Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts gets a facelift". Wallpaper. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  3. "Our Vision". Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  4. "GARDNER ARTS CENTRE INCLUDING KERBSTONES TO POOL, Non Civil Parish - 1381046 - Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  5. "ARTS A AND B INCLUDING COURTYARD POOL GARDNER ARTS CENTRE, Non Civil Parish - 1381045 - Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  6. "Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts University of Sussex by R H Partnership Architects Ltd". find-an-architect.architecture.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  7. "Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts - Theatres Trust". Theatres Trust. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  8. "The Building". Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  9. Bealing, Jacqui. "Still defying boundaries five decades on". The University of Sussex. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  10. "Final curtain at Gardner Arts Centre". The Argus. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  11. "Cuts force arts centre to close down". The Argus. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  12. Smillie, Susan (8 December 2006). "Why is the Gardner Arts Centre being shut down?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  13. Mark, Laura (4 August 2015). "Grade II*-listed Basil Spence arts centre gets a revamp". Architects' Journal. Retrieved 2023-04-20.

Further reading
  • Hutchison, Robert (1977). Three Arts Centres: a Study of South Hill Park, the Gardner Centre and Chapter. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. pp. 73–95. ISBN 0728701383.
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