The Firstsite Visual Arts Facility

Well! I received an invitation to attend the awards ceremony of Colchester in Bloom at our new arts building yesterday. I have been watching the building's progress over the past years and listening to and reading the comments being made about it from the usual suspects, who ceaselessly whine about things generally. What a waste of money, money could be better spent, what about our bus station, etc. etc. sort of thing. Well! Now we have our new arts building. It is an incredible building and, although I have only seen it in its almost-ready state, I was very impressed and very optimistic about its future. The auditorium especially is superb and I hope, one day, to give one of my talks there. So I will come clean and admit that I opposed the design of the building from the outset. I wanted a Roman temple styled building for Colchester. This is anything but that. I shall now watch with interest how it fares and to learn whether one Andy Hamilton ever sets foot inside the place.