The Government of Canada is providing $1,500,000 to support the development of the new Ancaster Arts Centre through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund.

The creative hub will be designed to provide artists, arts organizations, cultural entrepreneurs and other members of the Hamilton community with an affordable space dedicated to the arts, where they can collaborate and encourage creative growth. The Ancaster Arts Centre will support various artistic mediums, including theatre, visual arts and dance, among others.

It will be designed to include a 450-seat theatre, a smaller studio theatre, two visual arts studios, a dance studio, two rehearsal halls, an artifact vault and a multipurpose common room. The Arts Centre will also offer professional performing arts programming, as well as visual arts exhibitions in its gallery, in order to support the region’s growing arts community.

The Ancaster Arts Centre will be located at the unused Ancaster Memorial School, which was recently purchased by the City of Hamilton. The site of the upcoming Arts Centre is located in the heart of Ancaster’s original downtown region, Ancaster Heritage Village, near several historically important sites.

“We are delighted to receive the federal support for the adaptive reuse of an iconic building right in the middle of our Heritage Village,” said City of Hamilton councillor Lloyd Ferguson, in a press release. “The federal contribution is the final piece of a four-way partnership to fund the Arts Centre.”