LEWES LITERATURE CENTRE £500,000 BID

The award means that a purpose-built space in Lewes new library, to be built facing Friars Walk, will be created.

It will offer readers, literature enthusiasts and writers an extensive programme of workshops, seminars, courses and events.

It will celebrate the written and spoken word in all its forms from poetry and novels to screenwriting, non-fiction and children s literature.

Facilities will include a well-equipped 120-seater studio theatre, a meeting room/workshop space and a display and information lounge with a small cafe.

The centre was one of only two literature capital projects across the country to win Arts Council support in the awards.

Seen as a national model for the development of literature promotion linked to libraries, it will build on links with the Open University and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, as well as a range of other partners.

Said a spokesman: The Literature Centre will offer a welcoming and professional facility promoting The Word as central to a wide range of art forms and popular media, and drawing in users from across the South East, as well as Lewes.

The initiative will also become a resource for outreachwork through links with reader, writer, community and youth groups.

A national first for literature and a great coup for Sussex, the Literature Centre will be managed independently but will maintain close links with the library in which it is housed.

It is scheduled to open at the same time as the library in 2003.

Published: 14.6.01 T R Beckett Ltd