Coventry IKEA set to become national culture centre
Plans have been unveiled for the transformation of the former five-storey IKEA store in Coventry city centre into a new culture centre.
Under the plans, Coventry Council would buy the building and develop a multi-purpose collections and cultural facility called the National Collections Centre.
It is hoped that the centre would help create a lasting physical, economic and cultural legacy from Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture which begins on 15 May.
Led by a partnership between Coventry City Council, Arts Council England, Culture Coventry Trust and Coventry University, in collaboration with the Coventry City of Culture Trust, the landmark project would also include Arts Council England relocating the Arts Council Collection from two current collection stores to Coventry. The site would become a busy new hub for art which will service the rest of the country with exhibition loans.
Work could start later this year to enable the centre to open in 2023. If approved by the council, the redeveloped building would become home to some of the UK’s greatest works of art.
Councillor David Welsh, Coventry City Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities which covers culture and the arts, said: “This exciting and amazing proposal really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something Coventry people can be rightly proud of as well as a national and international centre of excellence that will be a lasting legacy from our year as UK City of Culture.
“A national Collections Centre would bring together the foremost national arts and cultural partners and their respective national collections alongside the city’s collections, to create a consolidated national base that would be at the heart of Coventry city centre.”
