The former IKEA store in Coventry. Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images.
The UK city of Coventry plans to open an enormous new arts center in a former IKEA store. The seven-story building, which has more than 580,000 square feet of floor space, will become among the biggest cultural hubs in the world.
The Coventry city council acquired the massive building, which was vacated by the Swedish furniture giant last February, after officials voted in favor of plans to convert it into a new national collections center.
The council did not say how much it paid for the site, but it plans to spend £1.31 million (around $1.8 million) to convert it into the planned hub, which is scheduled to open in August 2023, according to the BBC.
Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.
Two important art collections are being sent to Coventry – or will be, if Coventry Council has its way. As part of Coventry’s stint as UK city of culture, which begins in May, the council is to vote next week on a plan to buy a recently closed five-storey IKEA store in the city centre and turn it into ‘a multi-purpose collections and cultural facility’. It is hoped that the new National Collections centre will put a roof over the head of the Arts Council and British Council art collections and that items not on display in the city’s own Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and the Coventry Transport Museum could be moved to the new centre.
This former IKEA store in Coventry could soon house much of the UK s national art collection
Two of the UK’s largest and most important national collections could be housed in a former IKEA store in the West Midlands under radical plans drawn up by Coventry City Council.
The Arts Council Collection and the British Council collection would relocate to the new facility as part of the initiative, creating a “consolidated national base that would be at the heart of Coventry city centre,” says city councillor David Welsh.
“Under the plans, Coventry City Council will buy the former five-storey IKEA store in the city centre and transform it to create a multi-purpose collections and cultural facility,” says a project statement. “The new National Collections Centre will contribute to a lasting physical, economic and cultural legacy from Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, which begins on 15 May 2021 and will run for 12 months.” The council is due to vote on the