10/05/2012
10/05/2012
Lincoln is to get another state-of-the-art digital cinema thanks to new investment by Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln. BG plans to spend more than £75,000 to turn Bishop Greaves Theatre on the Longdales Road campus into a state-of-the-art cinema which can also stage theatrical productions.
Work will begin in the summer and The Venue, as it will be called, will open its doors to the public in September with a new digital projection system, surround sound and fully refurbished seating. Plans for the new cinema include a Silver Screen series, a children's matinee series, mainstream films and an independent arthouse film programme.
"We're very excited about these plans, which will provide an alternative venue for cinema in uphill Lincoln without losing the performing arts space on campus which is so important to us," said Bev Bamber, Head of Conferencing and Events at BG. "We're always looking for ways to encourage Lincoln residents to use our facilities and there is scope for us to address the lack of a quality cinema experience in uphill Lincoln.
"We've been discussing this for 15 months and we're all delighted that the plan is now coming to fruition. Rather than competing with the ODEON and the Ritz, The Venue will complement the existing offer and provide the public with more choice. Our main commercial offering will be films, but The Venue will continue to be used for drama teaching and stage productions."
One local group which is delighted by the news is the Lincoln Film Society, whose idea it was to approach BG and ask for new digital facilities.
"This is a fantastic moment for the society," said Richard Hall, Honorary Chairman of the Lincoln Film Society. "Next season will be our 60th and we can't think of a better way to celebrate it than to take this step. We have been increasingly aware of the move within the industry towards digital projection, and we knew that if we couldn't show films digitally then the number of films we could offer would fall. However, raising around £60,000 for digital projection equipment was completely beyond us, and ultimately we feared that the society would decline. We have a very strong and positive relationship with BG going back 25 years and we began discussions with them last year. Thanks to their fantastic support we will soon be able to offer film fans in the city a real choice about what they want to watch at a level of quality they have come to expect from professional cinemas."
