{"id":9973,"date":"2015-04-09T18:13:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T17:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=9973"},"modified":"2015-04-09T18:13:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T17:13:07","slug":"sg-social-growth-fund-historic-building-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=9973","title":{"rendered":"SG Social Growth Fund: historic building award"},"content":{"rendered":"

A historic building in Ayrshire which is a community theatre and arts venue is now benefitting from new funding from the Scottish Government (SG) Social Growth Fund and People and Communities Fund, and shows how historic buildings can use funding from multiple sources to help meet modern requirements whilst also retaining their historic character and promoting skills development to benefit local communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scottish Government writes:
\n<\/span>Long term plans to restore Ayr Gaiety will take a step forward thanks to a significant funding boost, Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil has announced.<\/p>\n

A \u00a3500,000 loan from the Social Growth Fund will be used to repair the historic theatre\u2019s stall seating and to invest in new lighting and sound technology.<\/p>\n

This comes on top of \u00a390,000 from the Scottish Government through the People and Communities Fund for 2015\/16, which aims to help communities tackle poverty and inequalities in their area.<\/p>\n

The \u00a3500,000 loan is one of the first allocations of funds through the \u00a316 million Social Growth Fund. Since the fund opened in May 2014, \u00a3150,000 has been allocated to the Factory Skatepark in Dundee, \u00a31 million to iPower to combat fuel poverty, and \u00a3250,000 to Kelvin Valley Honey.<\/p>\n

Mr Neil welcomed the funding boost on a visit to the theatre. He said: \u2018This loan will help the Ayr Gaiety Partnership regenerate its fantastic historic building. By renovating the theatre and improving the experience for audiences I\u2019m confident that this will have a knock-on effect on the local economy, encouraging more people to visit and spend money in Ayr.\u00a0 It\u2019s exactly the type of community led project that the Scottish Government is supporting across Scotland.\u00a0 We recognise that social enterprises strengthen our economy and support our aims of creating a fairer society, but we need to have the right environment for them to flourish. That is why it\u2019s crucial for us to provide direct support and investment through schemes like the Social Growth Fund.\u00a0 This Fund encourages our entrepreneurs and enterprising organisations to think of innovative ways to tackle inequalities and help us to deliver a better Scotland.\u2019<\/p>\n

Since re-opening the theatre just over two years ago, the Ayr Gaiety Partnership has sold over 120,000 tickets, started a major skills and employment initiative, established work with young people across Ayrshire and taken on programming of four more venues.\u00a0 This investment for Ayr Gaiety is part of the overall \u00a32.4 million refurbishment of the theatre, with plans including improvements to the heating and ventilation and renovation of the entrance and foyer.<\/p>\n

This funding highlights the Scottish Government\u2019s support for our culture and heritage and demonstrates our commitment to maintaining and improving our cultural infrastructure.\u00a0 Ian Welsh chair of Ayr Gaiety Partnership said: \u2018This investment couldn’t have come at a better time for us. We now need only around \u00a3300,000 before we can go ahead with our plans, so we are now on the ‘home straight.\u00a0 With a fully restored theatre we will be able to put on an even better programme of shows and put our business on a sustainable footing.\u00a0 More than this, a modernised and fully equipped theatre will play a key role in our plans to provide training and employment opportunities to young people. It will boost the innovative BA in technical theatre we launched recently with the University of the West of Scotland. And form the core of an ambitious programme to provide practical training in stage technical skills which will eventually see hundreds of young people securing qualifications and jobs.\u2019<\/p>\n

The \u00a316 million Social Growth Fund is comprised of \u00a38 million of loan repayments from recipients of the Scottish Investment Fund which have been reinvested by the Scottish Government, and \u00a38 million from Big Society Capital.\u00a0 The Fund is managed by Social Investment Scotland (SIS).<\/p>\n

Alastair Davis, Chief Executive of SIS, said: ;Ayr Gaiety Theatre delivers many social and economic benefits to the local community and we are delighted to assist with its renovation plans.\u00a0 This funding commitment from the Social Growth Fund has paved the way for significant commitments from other funders which have enabled this project to come to life.\u00a0 Once the renovation is complete, the theatre will provide Ayrshire with a truly first class facility, which will deliver positive social impacts for many years to come.\u2019<\/p>\n

View the news release<\/a><\/p>\n

Find out more<\/a> about Social Growth Fund opportunities<\/p>\n

Find out more<\/a> about Ayr Gaiety Theatre and its historic building\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

IHBC newsblogs on funding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A historic building in Ayrshire which is a community theatre and arts venue is now benefitting from new funding from the Scottish Government (SG) Social Growth Fund and People and Communities Fund, and shows how historic buildings can use funding … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9974,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9973\/revisions\/9974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}