Crowdfunding bid launched to save newly renovated Dunoon Burgh Halls
January 21 2025
An urgent crowdfunding bid has been launched to raise £60,000 and stave off the potential closure of an arts centre that opened just eight years ago.
The spectre of dereliction has been raised to focus minds amidst concerns over the future of the venue, as raised by Christina McKenzie, chair of the Burgh Hall, who said: “We’ve already begun work on a long-term strategy to rejuvenate every part of the building to make it better serve the local and wider community.
“We want the Hall to become the beating heart of Dunoon and the wider Cowal Peninsula. We believe there can be a bright future ahead if we can navigate through the immediate shortfall in revenue".
Greg Girard, managing director of CX Services which is supporting the bid, added: “… sadly, like many arts organisations which rely on funding, it is finding it difficult to operate in the current financial climate. Costs have risen dramatically, and funding is getting harder to come by, which has left the Hall facing a significant shortfall.
“It urgently needs to raise £60,000 over the next few months or it faces the prospect of closure by the middle of the year.”
Designed by architect Robert Alexander Bryden, the grey schist building dates from 1873 and, at the time of its opening, it was home to the first theatre in Argyll. It was used for dancing, singing, meeting and performing before later housing council services.
The B-listed Hall was refurbished in 2017 by Page/Park Architects and the John McAslan Family Trust for £1.65m and is now a creative, cultural hub serving the Cowal peninsula.
A cafe was among the newly introduced facilities in 2017. Photography by Peter Sandground
The cultural hub could close after operating for less than a decade
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10 Comments
Ideally these projects should have a well run mother organisation with its own funding.
Better still to also have lettable offices and spaces and ideally money making cafes or shops so that the building is self funded for the foreseeable.
A bit like the Lighthouse or the CCA in Glasgow
Oh wait a minute…
How many award ceremonies did the brains trust running the venue attend over its short life?
Stinks of happy hoofers living off grants until the bank calls them in for a meeting without coffee.
Probably harsh but it is how the sector works.
If the Burgh Hall ends up closing, then it's the local community that loses out, it won't help them pointing fingers at who did or didnt go to some awards ceremony.
What's to be done? How do other countries manage to fund their regional arts facilities and have thriving cultural hubs?
Carrying no debt from the renovation and can't keep the lights on?
Did the people running this work in the QM?