Edinburgh Printmakers have secured £5m from the Heritager Lottery Fund to redevelop Castle Mills in Fountainburdge as a world-class contemporary arts centre specialising in printmaking, it was announced today.
As reported in Issue 228, the 2000 sq.m. former HQ of the North British Rubber Company will eventually house state-of-the-art 3D printmaking, laser cutting and textile printing facilities in addition to the more conventional equipment for lithography, etching, screenprinting and relief printing specialisms.
Part of the building will be converted into artists studios, and part made available to creative enterprises as office accommodation ‘creating an environment for innovation and creativity’.
Gallery, retail and café spaces will also be available.
With in-kind support from City of Edinburgh Council, and building on £1.7m already ‘earmarked’ by Creative Scotland, Edinburgh Printmakers are now confident of raising the remaining funds needed to complete the project from public and charitable trust donations.
They hope to launch the new centre in 2017, the year of their 50th Anniversary.
So what will become of Edinburgh Printmakers' current premises in the former Edinburgh Corporation Wash-house on Union Street? Will it remain a creative space plumb in the heart of Broughton?
Your guess is as good as ours. No-one was available for comment this morning.