Archive News
Launch of Ladyburn Business Centre
Riverside Inverclyde (ri) has now formally opened the Ladyburn Business Centre, the organisation's latest development within the Riverside Business Park.
The Ladyburn Centre has been made possible through an ambitious upgrade of the Victorian Ladyburn school building including a new roof and the cleaning of the stonework to reveal attractive blond sandstone. The Centre, which originally had 30 individual classrooms, now boasts business space together with six ground-level studios, specially converted to be suitable for artists and a major communal area within the building suitable for exhibitions and displays. The building is enhanced by landscaping work which ties this project to the newly-built Clyde View office building, which is offering high quality accommodation to local and incoming businesses.
During the refurbishment, two artists were commissioned by ri to carry out projects in the Business Park. Local artist Alec Galloway has installed three pieces of stained glass within Ladyburn School and Keith McCarter has produced Aspiration, an 8 m high stainless steel sculpture which is located to the east of Clyde View.
The formal opening was carried out by one of Britain's leading contemporary artists, Alison Watt OBE, who was born and brought up in Greenock. Among many career highlights, during 2008 she was artist-in-residence at the National Gallery on London's Trafalgar Square, when she became one of the youngest artists to stage a solo exhibition there. Following the opening, Alison went on to host a special “Art in Regeneration” seminar which explored the importance and the value of public art and design within regeneration projects.
Together Clyde View and the Ladyburn Business Centre look set to ensure that the Riverside Business Park will play a key role for local and incoming businesses, artists and artistic groups, and local community organisations.
At the opening, Alf Young, Chairman of ri, said, “we are delighted to see the Ladyburn Centre opened and revitalised. It is an attractive building which deserved to be renovated. We are also pleased and proud that Alison Watt has joined us in this celebration. She is the personification of what artistic talent can achieve, and we look forward to seeing more local artists following in her footsteps”.
The opening of the Ladyburn Centre shows that ri is determined to make its work meaningful to local individuals and communities – to take its work beyond the realm of simply providing bricks and mortar.
Alison Watt added, “I really believe that the regeneration of this building; its transformation, has the potential to produce not only a vibrant creative community locally but also to attract social enterprise in this area and so improve the environment for local people"
Further information regarding this project and suite availability is available from Garry Williamson at ri on 01475 746473
