Lancaster Uni to create £6m arts centre

Lancaster University has published plans for a new 30,000 sq ft arts centre at its Bailrigg campus.

The £6.2m Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts building will be used by students in art, design, music and theatre studies.

The new base will consolidate disparate existing LICA premises and house the Peter Scott Gallery, the Nuffield Theatre and Imagination@Lancaster, a "centre of excellence for research into products, places and systems for the future".

Currently, these various groups and facilities occupy a collection of buildings to the north of Lancaster University in both general and specialist spaces.

The new facility will be a design-and-build construction over two floors on an allocated development site situated at the northernmost area of campus.

The area is surrounded by a new student residential development to the east and mature woodland to the west.

Contractors have until 16 March to request application forms for the construction work.