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Beacon Arts Centre
The Beacon Arts Centre is a performing arts and community art venue in Greenock, serving the Inverclyde area of Scotland. It is owned and operated by Greenock Arts Guild Ltd., a charitable organisation with core funding from Creative Scotland and Inverclyde Council
The guild formed in 1946, and adapted a disused Victorian swimming pool building on Campbell Street as their Arts Guild Theatre. A small theatre opened in 1949, followed by the Main Auditorium in 1955. It became a receiving house for touring shows, as well as producing house with half the performances amateur, as well as providing classes and workshops in music, art and drama.
In January 2013 the Arts Guild moved to their new Beacon Arts Centre on Greenock's waterfront, at Custom House Quay. Its main performance spaces are the Main Auditorium and The Studio theatre space. A Gallery Suite hosts exhibitions and provides multifunction meeting, rehearsal and functions space. Full height glazed walls of the Gallery Suite and Cafe & Bar give views out over the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll.
The Arts Guild Theatre was situated on Campbell Street in Greenock, Inverclyde, immediately to the west of the railway line leading to Princes Pier, at the start of Greenock's West End residential area.
The Beacon Arts Centre is at Custom House Quay, just across the A8 main road from Greenock's town centre, between the area in front of the Custom House and the East India Harbour. Its Cafe & Bar and first floor Gallery Suite look out over the River Clyde and Firth of Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, people of Greenock sought a war memorial to be "something worthy of the sacrifice of the fallen, and of practical value to those who have survived". The Greenock Telegraph publicised the need for ideas, and its managing director Ryrie J Erskine Orr spoke at the 1945 West Renfrewshire Drama Festival, proposing "a beautiful and living theatre that would be the headquarters of all the cultured arts."
The Greenock Arts Guild Ltd was founded as a non-profit charitable company to promote local participation in arts activities, and incorporated on 4 December 1946. They bought the "West End Baths", a disused private swimming pool built in 1881 which had closed in 1941, put together plans and material, and raised funds for its conversion. They also promoted theatre productions in other halls in the interim.
The Arts Guild Theatre opened in 1949 with two meeting rooms and a small 100-seat theatre on the first floor of the building, which was named the Wallace Bennett Theatre in memory of a Royal Air Force serviceman from Greenock, and occupied the former billiards room. This was the first new theatre in mainland Britain for more than twenty years, and was greeted with widespread expressions of support, including messages from Benjamin Britten, John Gielgud, Malcolm Sargent, Sybil Thorndike and Vaughan Williams.
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Beacon Arts Centre
The Beacon Arts Centre is a performing arts and community art venue in Greenock, serving the Inverclyde area of Scotland. It is owned and operated by Greenock Arts Guild Ltd., a charitable organisation with core funding from Creative Scotland and Inverclyde Council
The guild formed in 1946, and adapted a disused Victorian swimming pool building on Campbell Street as their Arts Guild Theatre. A small theatre opened in 1949, followed by the Main Auditorium in 1955. It became a receiving house for touring shows, as well as producing house with half the performances amateur, as well as providing classes and workshops in music, art and drama.
In January 2013 the Arts Guild moved to their new Beacon Arts Centre on Greenock's waterfront, at Custom House Quay. Its main performance spaces are the Main Auditorium and The Studio theatre space. A Gallery Suite hosts exhibitions and provides multifunction meeting, rehearsal and functions space. Full height glazed walls of the Gallery Suite and Cafe & Bar give views out over the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll.
The Arts Guild Theatre was situated on Campbell Street in Greenock, Inverclyde, immediately to the west of the railway line leading to Princes Pier, at the start of Greenock's West End residential area.
The Beacon Arts Centre is at Custom House Quay, just across the A8 main road from Greenock's town centre, between the area in front of the Custom House and the East India Harbour. Its Cafe & Bar and first floor Gallery Suite look out over the River Clyde and Firth of Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, people of Greenock sought a war memorial to be "something worthy of the sacrifice of the fallen, and of practical value to those who have survived". The Greenock Telegraph publicised the need for ideas, and its managing director Ryrie J Erskine Orr spoke at the 1945 West Renfrewshire Drama Festival, proposing "a beautiful and living theatre that would be the headquarters of all the cultured arts."
The Greenock Arts Guild Ltd was founded as a non-profit charitable company to promote local participation in arts activities, and incorporated on 4 December 1946. They bought the "West End Baths", a disused private swimming pool built in 1881 which had closed in 1941, put together plans and material, and raised funds for its conversion. They also promoted theatre productions in other halls in the interim.
The Arts Guild Theatre opened in 1949 with two meeting rooms and a small 100-seat theatre on the first floor of the building, which was named the Wallace Bennett Theatre in memory of a Royal Air Force serviceman from Greenock, and occupied the former billiards room. This was the first new theatre in mainland Britain for more than twenty years, and was greeted with widespread expressions of support, including messages from Benjamin Britten, John Gielgud, Malcolm Sargent, Sybil Thorndike and Vaughan Williams.
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