A critically acclaimed arts company leading a £10m bid to salvage one of Europe’s finest modernist buildings has folded after it failed to secure funding.



The arts company NVA had been at the forefront of plans to rescue St Peter’s Seminary near Cardross on the north bank of the Clyde in Scotland. But NVA announced on Tuesday it was closing down, partly because it had failed to find the money needed for St Peter’s full restoration.

The seminary, which became derelict after it was abandoned in 1980, is regarded as a modernist masterpiece.

It was built in 1966 as a training centre for priests to a design by the architects Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, but was never entirely watertight. Since it closed down, its arches and walls have become covered in graffiti and battered by the elements.

NVA, a critically acclaimed arts company that specialised in open air light, sound and kinetic productions involving runners, cyclists and islands, launched a bid to rescue the building after staging its Hinterland show at St Peter’s in 2016.

They were given a £4.2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Creative Scotland in March 2016 to allow key parts of the building to be made weather-tight and protected, to ensure it was safe for public performances and activities.

The original intention was to create a permanent arts centre and community facility. Its triple-height chapel was to be partially restored to house a 600-capacity venue while the former sacristy and crypt was to be used for exhibitions.

A path network, walled garden and bridges in the surrounding 104-acre estate – which includes the remnants of the 15th century Kilmahew castle, were also to be restored. The site remains in the ownership of the Catholic archdiocese of Glasgow.

NVA said it decided last September it could not continue with the rebuilding project, citing increasing financial and physical risks.

It said its efforts since then to find an alternative plan for the seminary and its own business floundered after Creative Scotland, the arts funding agency, announced in January NVA would not be given core funding.

“The scale of these challenges has led the NVA board to reflect deeply on the current situation and the company’s future and to conclude, with sadness, that after 25 years NVA (Europe) Limited is now not able to continue,” the company said in a statement.

It said its last work would be a co-production with a film company, Hopscotch Films, for the official arts season to commemorate the first world war, 14-18 NOW. It said the film would “reflect on the shortcomings of a century of female enfranchisement, 100 years on since the passing of the Representation of the People Act granted some women the right to vote in the UK for the first time”.

Scotland’s culture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, expressed regret at NVA’s collapse but would not interfere in Creative Scotland’s funding decisions.

Creative Scotland did not offer any new funding but said: “We appreciate how difficult this decision has been for the board and staff of NVA and will continue to offer support and advice to all those involved.”