Strathearn Arts is an established Crieff charitable institution, hosting incoming theatre, music, comedy, film and other diverse arts, as well as providing Crief with workshops and community arts space. Its old auditorium was built in 1816, and operated for eighty years as a civic hall and auditorium, hosting dances, dinners, concerts and lectures. It retains its generous proportions and civic gravitas, as well as its happy town centre location, and remains wonderfully fit-for-purpose.
The sort of diverse, civic arts, that the auditorium was built to accommodate in the early 19th century, is increasingly understood to be of critical importance to the health and wellbeing of our communities today; and it is a little-remarked fact that, in Scotland, in the last 25 years, from the Borders to the Outer Isles, compact arts hubs have become social hearts to our towns.
Crieff itself is a lovely, couthy toon – the sort of place likely to gain from a post-covid refocus on places that are liveable and sociable, rather than big-city-commutable. Strathearn Arts have already shown an implicit understanding of all these opportunities; but, equally, their building has shown itself capable of accommodating the sort of diverse arts and social uses these opportunities bring.
This project brings these strengths up-to-date, meeting and beating contemporary requirements for access and the touring aspirations of diverse theatre, music, dance, comedy and other acts. The proposal provides for the flexible arrangements that diverse users seek, opening-up to its community by carefully and joyfully developing its town centre location. Big windows open up views out to the countryside, with options for a new combined reception, ticket-office, café and bar facility either on Comrie or Lodge Street.
The next phases of the project will involve public consultation, business planning and fundraising.
