Sixties seminary saved by lottery funding

One of Scotland’s most important religious buildings is to be turned into an arts venue after it was saved from ruin by a £4 million donation from the Heritage Lottery Fund, writes Brian Morton.

St Peter’s Seminary at Cardross and parts of the Kilmahew estate surrounding it are to be restored and turned into a heritage site.

The building, regarded as one of the finest examples of Modernism in northern Europe, was designed by Isi Metzstein and Andy MacMillan of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, and opened for the training of men for the priesthood in 1966. It functioned as a seminary for 16 years and was abandoned in 1980.

Angus Farquhar, creative director of NVA, the Glasgow-based arts organisation behind the campaign to save the building, described news of the lottery funding, which will be supplemented with a further £400,000 from Creative Scotland as a “historic moment” in the life of St Peter’s.

Recent work by NVA has restored life to the site. Its groundbreaking installation, “Hinterland”, which was reviewed by The Tablet on 12 March, showed visitors how the restoration process might continue.

“We are now able to start work on its permanent transformation into an international cultural centre that will speak to the creative life of Europe,” Mr Farquhar said.

“After the overwhelming response to ‘Hinterland’, our first major animation of the site and the new name for Kilmahew/St Peter’s, we have real hope that our vision for progressive, socially focused art will connect strongly with people and together we will forge a new place for public art and its significance in the world.”