Restorations and Tranformations

The opening talk of the Charleston Festival with looked at the challenges of renewal projects for cultural organisations.

The focus of the event was the Charleston Centenary Project, a plan to develop the barn areas to create more visitor space without increasing the strain on the house. The architect of the project Jamie Forbert was there to outline the plans.

This was balanced with Jeremy Dixon the architect of a number of cultural projects such as the Royal Opera House and the National Portrait Gallery and with Charles Saumarez Smith, the Chief Executive of the Royal Academy who has commissioned a number of these projects.

It was a fascinating talk with one speaker pointing out that you need to plan for the boost in visitors the work will bring but that this will drop when the novelty of the project wears off.

Don’t worry I won’t be blogging all the Charleston events as there were 36 in all this year. I am just going to focus on those with an art bias.

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