Brian Ferguson’s Post

It has been quite a week keeping a watching eye over Edinburgh’s cultural scene, with big news on two long-running sagas. First out the blocks came confirmation that work on Edinburgh’s first new concert hall for a century would be getting underway within weeks – after around 35 years of campaigning, searching for a suitable site and fundraising for the project. The Dunard Centre, a 1000-capacity venue which will provide a new home for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, play host to the Edinburgh International Festival each summer and showcase all forms of music, is due for completion after the Scottish Government agreed to triple its investment in the project, which is now due to cost £162m, more than three times the cost of the venue when it was first announced. Secondly came confirmation from the National Lottery Heritage Fund of almost £5m worth of support for the creation of a National Centre for Music in Edinburgh, at the site of the former Royal High School building, just a few minutes walk away from the location of the Dunard Centre. By the end of 2027, almost 60 years after the school relocated elsewhere in the city, the 196-year-old building will be reborn as a space for live music performances, rehearsing and recording, with major construction work on the £75m project now able to proceed after the lottery money was secured. The Scottish Government has confirmed it has also been involved in funding discussions over the National Centre for Music. It seems a matter of when, rather than if, it will commit funding for this venture as well. Both of these projects have been pursued and largely bankrolled over the last decade by the Dunard Fund, the charity founded by the American philanthropist Carol Colburn Grigor, by any measure the biggest private supporter of the arts in Scotland in modern times. The Dunard Fund has now committed a staggering £100m across two projects which will cost at least £232m to deliver over the next few years. Neither would have got off the ground or got to this stage were it not for this one individual, who is playing a key role in shaping the cultural landscape of the city. Read my latest story on the National Centre for Music here: https://lnkd.in/enrjppZV Read my explainer on why the Scottish Government has agreed to pay £30m for Edinburgh’s new concert hall: https://lnkd.in/ejdTTcAx Read my opinion column for The Herald on why the cost of the Dunard Centre appears to be a price worth paying given government interventions over other cultural project which have suffered significant delays or funding problems over the last 10 years: https://lnkd.in/ejzH33Jc Dunard Centre Royal High School Preservation Trust Edinburgh International Festival Scottish Chamber Orchestra Scottish Government Culture