SOUTHEND Council has secured £495,000 of funding to convert a former gallery into artist studios.

Arts Council England has awarded the cash from its Small Capital Fund towards a project by Focal Point Gallery and the Beecroft Trust to create 23 accessible studios for artists, as well as a community gallery and workshop space, at the former Beecroft Gallery, in Station Road, Westcliff.

The transformation plans were approved in March by the council’s development control committee.

Ann Holland, councillor responsible for culture, tourism and the economy, said: “This is another piece of fantastic news for our borough’s cultural scene and comes as work takes place on a new cultural venue, Twenty One, by the Pier Hill lift.

“Our plans at the former Beecroft Gallery will breathe new life into a currently redundant building within a conservation area and see it brought back into productive use.”

Mrs Holland added: “It will support the borough’s tourism strategy and its strong and growing arts scene, which is demanding this sort of facility in order to flourish.

“Indeed, there has already been a fantastic response from artists, locally and further afield, which I am pleased we can now move forward with.”

The studio complex will hopefully be open for artists to use in summer 2018.

The gallery project also received a £20,000 council grant. The authority gave the cash as a gift to the trustees of the gallery, which moved to the former central library in Victoria Avenue two years ago due to structural issues.

The grant, which the council had the option of making as a loan, was used by the Beecroft Art Gallery Trust to make a formal bid to Arts Council England’s for a complete overhaul of the site. Each Southend councillor is a member of the trust.

The building would be divided into seven studios of various size, being priced at between £100 and £300 a month - with the possibility of some studios being enlarged with a price tag of more than £300 a month if there is demand.

For further information about the project, contact the gallery at focalpointgallery@southend.gov.uk