The Crescent Arts Centre (or simply The Crescent) is an arts centre based in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, founded in 1980. The centre hosts a wide range of arts and entertainment events, as well as classes in dance, music, verbal and visual arts, and community outreach programmes. Its facilities include a

dance studio A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose. Overview A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used fo ...

named after its late patron, the choreographer and

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

Helen Lewis. The centre is home to the annual June Belfast Book Festival. The Crescent is housed in the former Victoria College on University Road in the Queens Conservation Area. The current patron of the centre is

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Pr ...

Refurbishment

The Victorian-era

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

was extensively refurbished between 2008 and 2010. In September 2008, then Minister of Culture Arts and Leisure, Gregory Campbell, announced the awarding of capital funding to allow refurbishment of the University Road site to get underway. The total cost would be £7.2million. The

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), translated in Irish as and in Ulster-Scots as , was a devolved government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department was the Mi ...

provided £4.5million; the

Arts Council of Northern Ireland The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Irish: ''Comhairle Ealaíon Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster-Scots: ''Airts Cooncil o Norlin Airlan'') is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, as a successor to ...

£1.45million; the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

£447,000; and the then Environment and Heritage Service £525,900. The Crescent itself contributed £236,000 and has appointed fundraising consultants to raise the rest.

References

Buildings and structures in Belfast Art museums and galleries in Northern Ireland Arts centres in Northern Ireland Culture in Belfast Grade B+ listed buildings {{UK-org-stub