introducing: granton station
Hear from Wasps Studios CEO Audrey Carlin about our new creative industries location, open now for freelancers, designers and social/cultural enterprises.
Granton Station is a £4.75m project led by City of Edinburgh Council to restore and adapt the B-listed former Granton Gas Works Railway Station, a landmark building that sits at the gateway to the Granton Waterfront Regeneration area.
Disused as a station since 1942, the new facility will deliver a 600m2 creative hub offering affordable, high quality workspaces, co-working desk spaces, a gallery/workshop space and meeting room provision, set in a newly landscaped public realm and outdoor events space.
As Scotland’s leading provider of creative spaces, Wasps is dedicated to supporting the creative economy. Join a community of a thousand artists and makers, and over eighty creative businesses and cultural charities already benefiting from Wasps’ 46 years of experience in operating creative workspaces. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of a vibrant network of creatives, designers, photographers, social entrepreneurs, and cultural producers.
For more information, please email granton@waspsstudios.org.uk or call Wasps on 0131 202 7889 to speak with the Granton Station team.
Perth Creative Exchange is a £4.5m partnership project between Wasps and Perth and Kinross Council which transformed the former St John’s School building to create Perth’s inspiring home for artists, makers, creative industry professionals and the general public. Crowned ‘Regeneration Project of the Year’ at the 2021 Scottish Property Awards, Perth Creative Exchange is the region’s first cultural hub of its kind, and Wasps’ first building in the area. Delivered by Robertson Construction though ‘hub East Central’ framework, Perth Creative Exchange is Wasps 20th building in Scotland.
The first artist tenants moved into their studios in November 2019, and we welcomed our first creative industry tenants in January 2020.
Working closely with Perth and Kinross Council, Elevator and the University of the Highlands and Islands – Perth College, as well as providing great studios and creative offices, the hub offers access to state of the art digital equipment and business support, with our sponsored facility “The Famous Grouse Ideas Centre”. Perth Creative Exchange was officially opened in February 2020 which also launched our first exhibition in The Gannochy Project Space, ‘Fair Exchange’, featuring 44 works from 14 Perth tenants.
Perth Creative Exchange encourages creative and artistic growth whilst retaining and attracting talent to the City of Perth and has already been greeted with great enthusiasm from the general public and creative community.
Inverness Creative Academy is a £6m project that transformed two beautiful B-listed former school Midmills buildings on the old Inverness Royal Academy site in the Crown area of the city into the largest creative facility for artists, designers, makers, creative industries, cultural social enterprises and the community in the Scottish Highlands.
about the project
The creation of Inverness Creative Academy was conducted in two phases; phase 1 was completed in November 2018 and brought the 1913 Arts and Science extension back into use as 30 new studio spaces for artists and makers. The first tenants moved into their studios in December 2018, and this part of the project was formally opened by Provost Helen Carmichael on 28th March 2019.
Phase 2 was opened in February 2022. For this, we restored the original 1895 Academy building – one of the finest listed buildings in Inverness – to complete the ‘creative industries’ wing of the project and transform the grand Assembly Hall into an inspiring public space. This stage saw us deliver a vibrant creative destination to serve the whole of the Highlands.
The two buildings provide 3,200 m2 in floor area and have the capacity to make a considerable contribution to local heritage regeneration, and to the growth of the wider creative economy in The Highlands. We look forward to welcoming everyone to the first major creative hub in The Highlands, building a central home for collaboration, production and opportunity.
The completed facility provides:
what’s on at inverness creative academy
wasps spaces in the highlands
discover
Inverness Creative Academy has brought new life to the former Inverness Royal Academy Midmills buildings. Throughout the project, Wasps has been exploring the history behind these incredible buildings, and have discovered a few artefacts along the way. Read, watch and listen to find out more:
be inspired
As part of the project, Wasps has been working to inform, educate and inspire people of all ages about the history on their doorstep. Find out about the activity Wasps has been delivering in the community:
support inverness creative academy
Wasps’ revenue covers our core costs and enables us to provide artists and makers with workspaces at rents which they can afford. However, as a charity Wasps is dependent on funding and donations to enable all of its capital developments in the first instance. Donations to Inverness Creative Academy have been vital to the completion of Phase 2, and go towards supporting the creative talent in The Highlands and investing in the future of Inverness’ built heritage and creative economy.
If you would like to find out more about supporting the transformation of Midmills, please contact Wasps’ Funding and Partnerships Manager Edward White on 0141 553 5890 or email Edward.White@waspsstudios.org.uk.
There are a number of options to acknowledge your support of the development. You can donate securely with PayPal Giving Fund using the button below:
We would like to say a huge thank you to all the supporters of Inverness Creative Academy so far:
