Gallery Oldham’s latest exhibition – ‘Designs on our Future’ – gives visitors their first chance to see how plans for the new town centre Coliseum Theatre and Heritage Centre are developing.
The proposals involve bringing the old library building back into use and making the most of the surrounding land to create a vibrant cultural hub for Oldham. The plans and designs on display are all working documents and the exhibition is an important stage in developing them further. The project was awarded development funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England in 2012.
Councillor Jean Stretton, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Co-operatives and Neighbourhoods, said: “Since 2012 we’ve been busy developing our concept for a new theatre and heritage centre with the aim of applying for further funding later this year. Initial conversations with a range of people – from architects to artists through to quantity surveyors and local teenagers – have brought us a long way and now we are ready to share our plans.
“The exhibition is your chance to find out about our progress, tell us what you think and help shape our plans for the future.”
Alongside the modern plans a display charts the beginnings of Oldham’s Library and Museum in 1883.The poster advertising the first ever exhibition is on display too and visitors will have the chance to design a new poster imagining what items might be on display in a few years’ time.
Photographer Ian Beesley and poet Ian McMillan have also been looking at this project and their creative responses will be on display too.
There is still time to take part in a consultation survey – the deadline is June 9 – about the plans on https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OCTHC
