ONE of Scotland's leading cultural residencies will undergo a radical transformation after raising enough money for a major rebuild and expansion.
Cove Park, on the western side of Argyll and Bute's Rosneath peninsula, has provided a temporary tranquil and isolated home to 1500 artists in its 14-year history, inspiring writers such as Margaret Atwood, Louise Welsh and Alasdair Gray and companies including the National Theatre of Scotland.
It has now raised enough of its total target of £1.3 million to begin work on constructing a new main public building, designed by architects Cameron Webster, which will provide more room for visitors, space for education work, and accommodation units for visiting artists.
The current main building on the site is dilapidated, and dismantling that building and constructing the new centre is the biggest shake-up at the site since it was first established in 1999.
The new centre will allow Cove Park to be open throughout the year - it effectively closes between December and February because the current main building is "inhospitable".
The rebuild plan has already received more than £620,000 from Creative Scotland but the centre, led by director Julian Forrester, has benefited from some large donations from charitable trusts.
Major financial support has come in recent months from the Foyle Foundation, giving £50,000; The Robertson Trust, £170,000; the Hugh Fraser Foundation, £10,000, the Binks Trust, £50,000 and most notably the Monument Trust, part of the Sainsbury family trusts, which gave £225,000.
Cove Park has also received £100,000 in private donations and now has about 12 per cent of the project total to find.
Mr Forrester said he would not be directly approaching former artists for funds, but a past resident, artist Dawn Youll, has been making ceramic swallows that are being sold to raise further funds. Swallows nest in the eaves of the main Cove Park building.
Other funding projects will be announced shortly.
Mr Forrester said: "We are on track. The board have decided that we have raised enough that we can start building in March or April next year - we have the green light. The trusts have really come through for us and we are still looking for smaller amounts from people who really believe in what we do here.
"We still need more than £100,000, which is not a small amount, but we are making inroads."
Booker Prize winners (Margaret Atwood), Costa Prize winners (Jo Shapcott), Turner Prize winners (Elizabeth Price, Simon Starling), Henry Moore fellows, Venice Biennale artists, Jerwood Prize winners, and award-winning theatrical directors and producers have all stayed and worked at the centre.
The centre, which has a series of small pods or living dwellings for artists, is based on 50 acres, 40 miles west of Glasgow, and was founded by Eileen and Peter Jacobs in 1999.
Ms Atwood said the place was "wonderful and energising". Ms Welsh, Zoe Strachan, Christos Tsiolkas and Jennie Erdal have lived and worked there too, as have Roderick Buchanan, Henry Coombes, Ron Butlin, Luke Fowler and the National Theatre of Scotland.
Run as a charity, it has 10 accommodation units on grounds that slope down to Loch Long.
Artists of all kinds can live, work, plan and collaborate. Some pods are big enough for two people, while others are single pods that overlook the dramatic landscape across the water.
Every summer, from May to September, Cove Park runs its main residency programme.
The residents are paid £400 a week and are chosen after open application.
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