Inverness Creative Academy

The first major arts hub in the Highlands iprovides urgently needed studios for everyone from photographers and textile designers to an artist who knits glass.

LDN Architects are at the heart of the two-phase Inverness Creative Academy project which aims to boost the economy by bringing together artists, makers and creative companies in a high-profile centre with the facilities they need to flourish.

Creative hubs are popular across Europe. They have been successfully pioneered in Scotland by Wasps Artists’ Studios – which is behind the Inverness development – whose centres include South Block in Glasgow.

There is an acute shortage of studio space in the Highlands, which hampers the prospects of locally based artists and makers and means some have to leave the area.

The £2.2 million Phase 1 has seen the restoration and transformation of one of the empty B Listed Midmills buildings, near the centre of Inverness, to create 39 high quality, affordable studio spaces and an exhibition area. Phase 2 will give a new future to the second building.

Many people have fond memories of the Midmills buildings, which were part of the Inverness Royal Academy and later Inverness College.