Possible Plan Of Wrexham’s Potential New Arts & Cultural Hub Released

A sketch showing how Wrexham’s proposed Arts and Cultural Hub could look in the town centre has been released.

The image has been released as part of an open invitation from the Oriel Wrecsam inviting members of the public to pop along to an exhibition / drop in session to discuss the potential new Arts and Cultural Hub in Wrexham.

Earlier this year it was announced that WCBC had been successful in their bid for a ‘Vibrant and Viable Places‘ grant, of which almost £800,000 has been allocated to developing an Arts and Cultural Hub in the town centre.

In a report presented to the Executive Board at the start of the month, the reasoning behind the proposed new ‘Hub’ was listed as a result of the Council’s: “Long standing vision to ‘create a gallery that will be a hub for cultural and creative activity in the visual and applied arts in Wrexham County Borough.”

The report added: “There have been previous plans to redevelop facilities at the existing location and in other locations none of which have come to fruition.”

If proposals are successful it is hoped the new ‘hub’ would accommodate a gallery space with museum lighting and environmental climate controls; additional flexible gallery space that could also present a programme based on a variety of media and provide opportunities for performance art; artist studio spaces and a a Lifelong Learning Centre providing flexible space for learning and outreach projects.

Locally there had been rumours for several months surrounding the future of the Peoples Market and back in March we reported that the Peoples Market had been mooted as the preferred location for the new hub. However it wasn’t until August’s Executive Board meeting where it was revealed that the current Oriel gallery had been selected as the preferred location for the Wrexham Town Policing base.

The potential location of the new Arts and Cultural Hub was also alluded to when one member of the Executive Board let slip some information about the Peoples’ Market. However no further details were given out at the meeting as the information fell into the private ‘Part 2′ section.

At present few details have been provided on the development of an Arts and Cultural Hub, with the image pictured above providing the public with the example of what the Hub could look like if it were to be successful.

For those who are interested in learning more about the proposals and / or you want to put your thoughts across, the drop in sessions will take place at 11 Chester Street on the 8th September (11.00am – 4.00pm) and 9th September (11.00am – 5.00pm).

If you want to get involved with the debate on the Wrexham.com forums regarding the police station move / Peoples’ Market conversion, you can find the forum thread here…