Coventry Ikea to become national cultural centre

Coventry City Council has announced it is purchasing a former five-storey Ikea story in the centre, with plans to transform it into a multi-purpose collections and cultural facility.

The new National Collections Centre will contribute to the economic and cultural legacy from Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture, which begins on 15 May 2021 and continues for 12 months.

Councillor David Welsh, the city council’s cabinet member for Housing and Communities, said: “This exciting and amazing proposal really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something Coventry people can be rightly proud of as well as a national and international centre of excellence that will be a lasting legacy from our year as UK City of Culture.

“A national Collections Centre would bring together the foremost national arts and cultural partners and their respective national collections alongside the city’s collections, to create a consolidated national base that would be at the heart of Coventry city centre.”

He added: “It would also free-up and create exciting opportunities for the much-loved Whitefriars Monastery that has been closed to the public for too long, while our local teams would benefit from working alongside a national collection management team.”