WHALE Arts, the community-led cultural anchor organisation for Wester Hailes, is delighted to announce the formal completion of a Community Asset Transfer for the land upon which their purpose-built arts centre was built in 2001.
Established by local people in 1992, WHALE Arts provides a wide range of creative opportunities, classes and workshops for the people of Wester Hailes, as well as hosting several other community-facing organisations and services, including: Sistema Scotland Big Noise Wester Hailes, Starcatchers – Scotland’s Arts and Early Years organisation and SCORE Scotland.
Their current community-owned building opened to the public in 2001, however the site itself has, up until now, been held on a 25-year lease from City of Edinburgh Council. The land which has been secured also includes WHALE’s community garden and a small, adjoining woodland area, all of which has now been brought into community ownership, thanks to a grant of £125,000 from the Scottish Land Acquisition Fund.
The organisation celebrated the successful completion of the process last Wednesday, 29 May 2024,with a ribbon cutting ceremony with members of the community who had taken part.
Interim WHALE Arts Agency CEO Kate Griffin said:
We’re thrilled to have completed the Community Asset Transfer process and are very grateful for our partners’ support to make it happen. Working together the WHALE Arts team, our Members, volunteers and artists look forward to seeing our award winning projects developing and thriving in our space at the creative heart of our community.
Securing this land for the whole community successfully completes a five-year process that began in the spring of 2019, during which WHALE Arts has consulted extensively with community members, local partner organisations and a range of other stakeholders, to ensure that all aspects of the transfer process aligned fully with the aspirations of the community.
There will be a public event to mark the completion of the CAT process at WHALE Arts from 11.30am – 1.00pm on Wednesday 29th May, so please join us for a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony with some light refreshments, and help us to celebrate the start of a new and exciting chapter in the story of this community-led (and now fully community-owned) creative powerhouse.
