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Making the Future - Sussex's 50th anniversary fundraising campaign

The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts

‘The arts are not a prerequisite of the privileged few; nor are they the playground of the intelligentsia.  The arts are for everyone – and failure to include everyone diminishes us all.’  Lord Attenborough’s Maiden Speech to the House of Lords in 1994.

When the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts opens in 2015 it will be a beacon of creativity and the embodiment of the Sussex interdisciplinary spirit.

A multi-million refurbishment is transforming the former Grade II* listed Gardner Arts Centre into a creative hub for the University and the region. It is our hope that the Arts Centre will be a dynamic cultural focus for the University campus and wider community, providing a home for the creative arts and creativity in its widest sense, as a catalyst for innovation and learning.

The new centre will be named in honour of our late Chancellor and friend Lord Attenborough, and as a memorial to his daughter and Sussex alumna, Jane Attenborough, a leading arts professional who died tragically in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Throughout Lord Attenborough’s long association with Sussex, he was particularly interested in the welfare of the Gardner building.  When he learned of its renaming, he set out his vision for its future: ‘The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts will provide an arena in which professional artists, the academic community and audiences can cross-fertilise, offering up the thrilling possibility of a uniquely rich and original range of events of the highest quality.

I have no doubt that the Centre will contribute hugely to the University’s future success and make a significant contribution to performing arts education and practice for generations to come.’

 

Read more about the plans for the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts