Art college ditches underground plans

CONTENTIOUS plans to create a glass extension to Edinburgh College of Art have been scrapped after it failed to secure a vital £3 million arts prize.

Plans for the expansion, which would have included an underground gallery containing a massive plastercast of Winged Nike to welcome visitors, was wholly dependent on the college securing the Scottish Community Foundation prize which was awarded to a rival bidder this week.

The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Newhaven beat competition from the ECA and The Scottish Book Trust to win the cash to build new artists' studios and an outdoor exhibition space at Hawthornvale.

While bosses at the Scottish Book Trust still hope to realise their ambition to create a new "literary quarter" on the Royal Mile, the ECA bid is now dead.

An ECA spokeswoman said: "We saw the prize as an opportunity for us to try and improve our facilities.

"We devised the project in a bid to win the prize, which means it won't be possible without it. However, we have a very rich calendar of exhibitions in our existing spaces throughout the year, and these will continue.

"We are delighted for the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, particularly as a number of our students use the workshop."

News that the project has been scrapped will come as a relief to Tollcross Community Council, whose chairman Paul Beswick described the proposed extension as "an incongruous add-on".

The Scottish Book Trust proposal, which is still on the cards, involves linking Trinity Apse, the remains of the 15th-century Trinity College Kirk behind the High Street, to a new Scottish Storytelling Centre with a literary garden.

It would also see a revamp of the Scottish Book Trust's home at Sandeman House.

Marc Lambert, CEO of the Scottish Book Trust, said: "We would still very much like to take the project forward, and are evaluating our options."

The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop always said its own bid was entirely dependent on the arts prize as it had no other means of funding, a fact that may have worked in its favour, according to the Scottish Community Foundation.

A spokeswoman said: "The other two organisations have the means to raise funding by themselves, whereas the workshop would have been less able to do so.

"The donor wanted to use the money to make an impact - to create something that you wouldn't see otherwise.

"All of the bids were considered on their artistic merits, but when it became clear that the workshop wouldn't be able to fund its proposals any other way I think this gave the judges an added boost."