Belfast's New Art Focus

The University of Ulster's Belfast art campus - formerly known as the Art College - is currently getting a fresh new image, thanks to a £30m upgrade. The Sixties-inspired Warwick Building, which stands next to St Anne's Cathedral, has been replaced with spacious, contemporary architecture in which a lobby can literally turn into a gallery. Most of the Warwick Building and the old Conor Hall has now been replaced with a six-storey super-structure of glass and steel. The futuristic newbuild will house a new lecture theatre and bigger and better teaching rooms, creating an innovative art exhibition space, among other things. Artists can exhibit their art work in the lobby and the walls have been deliberately left white or grey.With the whole project due for completion by 2009, Belfast may just have a new art focus. For the full story - click the title Irish Art