Together with the programme of concerts in the main auditorium, there will be a range of informal events in the café bar and other performance spaces. A variety of paid opportunities are available for those interested in working with Shetland Arts to coordinate and promote events including trad sessions, acoustic performances and DJ sessions.

Thursday evenings will see a regular traditional Shetland music session at Mareel, and the upper and lower café bar will also play host to regular acoustic, open mic and singer-songwriter nights and Sunday sessions.

There will also be opportunity for DJs of all styles to provide music at a range of events at Mareel including Club Nights, support for visiting performers and background music in the café bar in the afternoon and evenings.

Shetland Arts is also asking local bands and musicians to get in touch if they’re interested in performing in the main auditorium.

Details of the Expressions of Interest can be found at: http://www.shetlandarts.org/EOI-MusicAtMareel

Music Development Officer, Bryan Peterson, said: “I’m delighted that we’re nearing the opening date where the many years of planning will reach fruition.”

“We’ve had a huge amount of interest from local musicians and DJs but we want to make sure everybody has the chance to get in touch and register their interest in performing and getting involved. The Shetland music community and local musicians are the key ingredients to the success of Mareel.”

“As well as concerts and gigs in the main auditorium, there will be a weekly programme of informal events in the cafe bar for musicians to participate in and regular opportunities for local DJs.”

“There are loads of gigging bands out there, and many more that are just starting out. We’re looking for as many groups as possible to get in touch so we can ensure an eclectic mix of live music events for local musicians and audiences.”

Further information on how to get involved with activities in Mareel will be available on the Mareel website which will be launched early next year.

Shetland Arts has also put together a video-blog on this news which you can view below.

Original announcement below:

Shetland Arts is delighted to announce the long-awaited opening date of Mareel following DITT Construction Ltd confirming to Shetland Arts that they will hand the building over on Monday 30th April 2012. Shetland Arts has also agreed with DITT Construction Ltd, access to certain parts of the building from the end of March. This will enable Shetland Arts to begin their post contract fit of the 2 cinemas and main auditorium.

The venue will open on Thursday 24 May 2012. There will be news to follow in coming weeks on the exciting plans taking shape for activities and events in Mareel from Spring next year.

Director of Shetland Arts, Gwilym Gibbons, has put together a short video-blog in celebration of the announcement and is planning to give the public a sneak peek at Mareel’s progress in another video-blog in the coming weeks. You can view the video-blog below.

Mr Gibbons added: “Shetland Arts is delighted to be making this announcement. The building is looking fantastic and although it has been a long haul for us all we are in no doubt that the quality of the venue and the experiences it will offer will in time complement Shetland’s other great cultural assets.”

Shetland Arts will take a UK-wide part in the London 2012 Festival that celebrates the London 2012 Olympic Games. Shetland Arts was invited to submit a proposal relating to Screenplay, our annual film festival, and came up with ‘A Hansel of Film – Shetland to Southampton and Back’, a relay of screenings of short films made by the public in every part of the UK, kicked off in Shetland on 10^th June by the arrival of the Olympic Torch in the isles as it reaches its UK most northerly point. The various programmes of films will be relayed between participating venues by ‘runners’, that is, creative and energetic individuals who will employ whatever means of transport they can devise to get the right films to the right venue on time. This will culminate in a marathon screening of over 120 short films at Screenplay 2012 between 4^th and 9^th September.

The project will take films made by Shetlanders and others to over twenty venues across the UK and will form a celebration of ‘home made’ short films similar to that which takes place annually at the Screenplay film festival. Head of Development Kathy Hubbard said “When we sat down and thought about what made Screenplay special, we all agreed that it was the evening of films made by local people and those connected with the isles.  The atmosphere is always really supportive, it’s tremendous to see the creativity of people of all ages – but most of all it’s fun. And it was that spirit which we wanted to offer as a hansel to other regions and nations of the UK during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to all those who will be taking part in the project.”

Acclaimed film critics Mark Kermode and Linda Ruth Williams, who are the curators of Screenplay, will be very active in promoting the project across the country. They will be greeting the ‘runner’ at The Harbour Lights Cinema in Southampton at the project’s half-way point, but will also be visiting other participating venues in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Said Mark and Linda, “We are delighted to be launching this exciting, nationally inclusive film relay, which will encompass all regions and nations of the UK and will spread the spirit of the London  2012 Festival from Shetland in the north to Southampton in the south and back again, taking in many points east and west along the way. We are looking forward to partnering up with cinemas and film-makers across the UK who are as enthusiastic as we are about people making their own films and taking movies on the road.”

Director of Shetland Arts, Gwilym Gibbons said: “Shetland Arts is thrilled to be taking an active part in the London 2012 Festival. It is a tribute to the creativity of our isles that Shetland has a role in delivering a UK-wide film project of this nature. It also comes at a very exciting time for us in the opening year of Mareel, Shetland’s new £12.2m music, cinema and creative industries centre. We will be inviting representatives from each of the participating regions and nations to come and join us back in Shetland for Screenplay 2012, making it a truly celebratory event.”

Ruth Mackenzie, Director of Culture at London 2012 said: “Thanks to Shetland Arts and all our cultural stars, in the summer of 2012 the London 2012 Festival will showcase our world leading cultural institutions, and demonstrate how dedicated we are at creating and celebrating world class talent.”

A ‘hansel’ is a Shetland dialect word meaning a gift that marks an event such as the launch of a new boat, the birth of a child or the creation of a new enterprise.  Mr Gibbons said: “‘A Hansel of Film’ will celebrate the special differences between our regions and nations, capturing stories through the diverse languages and dialects, landscapes and seascapes of the British Isles. The films that we will screen will be born out of the very different experiences we all have, and heavily influenced by the power of the places in which we all live.”

Hansel definition: ‘a gift to commemorate an inaugural occasion, the launching of a new boat, the birth of a child, a new home, new enterprise.’  John J Graham – The Shetland Dictionary.

About the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival: The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements.  Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people.

The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, bringing leading artists from all over the world together from 21 June 2012 in this UK-wide festival – a chance for everyone to celebrate London 2012 through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation.

Principal funders of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival are Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor.  BP and BT are Premier Partners of the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival.

Visit the project’s official website: http://hansel2012.org

For more details visit: www.london2012.com/festival

For press enquiries contact Lisa Ward, Marketing Officer: lisa.ward@shetlandarts.org or 01595 743 742

For project enquiries contact Kathy Hubbard, Head of Development: kathy.hubbard@shetlandarts.org or 01595 743 843

As the saying goes, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ so we have been round the venue this morning to capture the scene inside to help give you all a sense of progress.

As you can see the building is, with the exception of a few areas, wind and watertight: second fix of electrical works is ongoing; plasterboard is going on the walls and ceilings and specialist Audio Visual cabling is in the process of being installed. For example: all the speaker cables for Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 are now in place.

You may have heard that the opening date has been pushed back to the New Year – at this point we have no firm new completion date, given an outstanding issue with the glazing subcontractor. What we do know is that DITT are making plans just in case the subcontractor can’t return to site and all being well, progress on the glazing will be underway again soon. Meanwhile, as you can see from the pictures great progress is being made inside the building.

Shetland Arts is taking bookings for Mareel from March 2012 onwards and will fill dates prior to then when a firm opening date is known. The venue already has a number of high profile events booked, so if you want to use the venue do get in touch on (01595) 743843 for an informal chat and a site visit.

For more information, video and images regards Mareel go to the Shetland Arts Mareel page.

Thursday 1– Monday 5 March

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) will be resident in the Shetland for its eighth annual Out and About, a week where the RSNO host, contribute to and participate in dozens of musical events with the local communities. In partnership with Shetland Arts, the RSNO will take its music-making to the mainland, as well as Unst, the Out Skerries, Fair Isle and Foula. These visits will involve a range of activities, from concerts and participative performances to community events and coaching opportunities. The week will enable the Shetland islanders to experience and interact with Scotland’s national symphony orchestra in their own community and will include the Orchestra’s northernmost UK performances of its 120-year history.

Gwilym Gibbons, Director of Shetland Arts said: “This is a hugely ambitious and exciting project and one that has been a long term ambition of Shetland Arts and the RSNO. It was always about picking the right time and for us the combination of this visit taking place as part of Music Nation, in the Year of Creative Scotland and in the opening season of Mareel, Shetland’s new £12.2m waterfront music, cinema and creative industries centre makes this absolutely the right time. I am delighted that Shetland Arts and RSNO are working in partnership to bring their orchestra to Shetland. It is very rare for a full symphony orchestra to commit to overcoming the enormous logistical challenge of getting to a island location like ours, let alone head out to the outer isles of Fair Isle, Out Skerries, Foula and Unst”.

Gwilym added: “The RSNO’s visit as part of Music Nation will coincide with the opening season of Mareel. The week of events will include collaborations and performances in venues including village halls, care homes, schools, Mareel and a full orchestral performance in the Clickimin Leisure Centre. Drawing upon our rich cultural heritage and our unique locations the week will bring together world class musicians from Shetland and the RSNO to develop and perform an original work”.

From Cornwall to the Shetland Isles, Belfast to Birmingham, Music Nation is an unprecedented collaboration of the UK’s orchestral and music making communities. Orchestras and choirs, large, small, professional and amateur, have formed partnerships with other musical organisations and venues in their area to create and host performances and workshops in 45 locations across the UK with more than 25,000 participants under the Music Nation banner.

The weekend is one of a select group of `countdown’ events for the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad, and is a key part of the BBC’s Cultural Olympiad programming. Built primarily around classical music, but taking in jazz, folk and world music, Music Nation aims to engage as many people as possible; whether it be attending world-class performances or taking part in community projects and workshops in venues and public places up and down the country.

Devised and led by the BBC, Music Nation is a partnership with Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), British Association of Concert Halls (BACH), Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and LOCOG to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain’s musical life. BBC Radio 3, Music Nation’s principal media partner, will broadcast live content throughout the weekend, with additional programming on Radio 2, BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and BBC local radio.

His visit started with a walk around Mareel, here are Andrew’s first impressions of the venue.

Andrew was last in Shetland 34 years ago when he spent 2 weeks on Foula mapping fishing noosts. He plans to return much sooner for the opening of Mareel – which will be much less than 34 years away!

This meeting is open to the public, and anyone with an interest in Mareel is invited to attend – let us know if you plan to do by clicking ‘I’m Attending’ on that page, so we ensure we have a suitable space for the meeting. If you haven’t already, we invite you to ‘Like’ our Mareel Facebook Page so we can keep you updated with Mareel news.

The scaffolding has been removed from around the building in readiness for the final glazing which should commence over the next few weeks.

Discussions are still ongoing regards the time impact of delays so we are unable to state a firm date at this time, however Shetland Arts hopes to be able to announce an opening date at the end of May / early June. If we can give news earlier to this date we will.

If you are looking for more info please post you questions here or give us a call on (01595) 743843. We are currently taking provisional bookings so please get in touch if you would like to book the venue, play in the venue or have a site visit to see for yourself the new opportunities Mareel will provide.

The tricky thing for us here at Shetland Arts is that we have to be very careful not to step on contractual toes, and that means there are details we cannot share with the public.  Some people may interpret this as cagey behaviour, but it is in the interests of the project. Our objective is simple – to deliver a building for the best possible price, of the best possible quality and in the best possible timeframe for Shetland.

Let me try and explain the issues around us being fully open on details of the Mareel construction, please bare with me I need to set the context a little first:

Mareel is a complex construction project. Much of the design includes detail and materials that have never been used in Shetland before. As with any large building project, there are things you discover as you go along – things that are hard to build, things you can do differently to save money and things that have to be redesigned because they are too expensive in their original form. It is the job of the Contract Administrator and our Quantity Surveyors alongside our Contractor to ensure the right party picks up any additional costs and any savings are realised for the Client (Shetland Arts).

Shetland Arts agreed a price for the construction of Mareel with D.I.T.T. Construction Ltd. The Contract, which includes a ‘Bill’ of items (that’s everything you can imagine needed to build a building), is the cornerstone of that agreement. However, just like with any building project (to varying degrees), as you go along you have to makes changes. Every change is carefully documented and will either save money on the agreed price, have no impact or add cost. Sometimes changes are requested by the Contractor at their cost and sometimes changes are requested by the Client, at the Clients cost.

We have a very detailed project management process in place. No changes are made that have a financial impact of £500 or more without a Change Request being issued and signed by the Client.

So, Shetland Arts started out with a contingency (a percentage of the construction contract amount budgeted for unforeseen circumstances or design changes identified after a construction project commences) to deal with the unknowns and changes that are the responsibility of the Client, and the Contractor picks up the other costs from contingencies that they have built into their agreed price. There are sometimes gray areas when the Client feels the costs should be picked up by the Contractor and visa-versa.  It’s the job of each others Quantity Surveyors to work this one out. Sometimes it’s a matter of “OK I will pick this one up, if you pick up that one”. It’s about finding a balanced fair way forward using the original Contract as the baseline.

So here’s where comment on rumours is not a good idea. If we were to suggest, for example, that there was a problem with a D.I.T.T. Sub-Contractor, we would be publicly placing blame and, with it, cost on D.I.T.T. Construction Ltd. That would not be fair, as it might not be the case. Likewise if D.I.T.T. were to suggest that a problem on site was due to the architects’ design, they would be passing cost onto the Client which might be equally unfair. These or suchlike discussions and suggestions need to be worked out between the relevant parties in private. Establishment of who picks up which cost is a detailed process (understandably, giving the monies involved) governed by the Contract and negotiated within a clear framework away from the politics, pressures and latest rumours of the day.

I act as the Client on behalf of Shetland Arts and have a detailed understanding of progress of the project. I spend around 3 days a week in construction related meetings or responding to Requests For Information (RFI’s) from Gareth Hoskins Architects and D.I.T.T. The Project Team are required under the Contract to respond within fixed timescales to queries to reduce delays. I’m either on site or with various members of the Project Team made up of our Project Manager (Ewen Balfour) our QS (Stephen Johnston), our Architects (Gary Johnston & Sarah Murphy) and our Contract Administrator (Ian Irving). We have a strong team of specialists advising and driving the project forward. Shetland Arts brings expertise in venue operation, cinema, events management and arts development, and the above team know their stuff when it comes to new builds. Progress is reported monthly to the Mareel Construction Board made up of key funders, Shetland Arts Trustees and members of the Project Team. Monthly updates are also made to The Mareel Sounding Board comprising Shetland Islands Council Elected Members.

So, when will Mareel be open?

Alas, at this time I don’t have an exact answer to that question. It’s frustrating I know, for all of us – including all those involved in building Mareel. I hope to be able to give more firm details on when we will open at the end of April. What I can tell you is that: progress on the building is continuing inside the building; D.I.T.T. have done what they can to mitigate the loss of their roofing contractor a couple weeks ago; much of the inside of the building is wind and watertight, and plasterboard and sound proofing is progressing throughout the building.

Shetland Arts has been taking bookings for Mareel since last October and we now have everything from weddings to club nights and jazz sessions to Christmas parties booked in. If you are interested in hiring Mareel and would like a look around the building do get in touch with us at Shetland Arts on 01595 743843.

For an independent take on the construction of Mareel, take a look at Pete Bevington’s article published on the Shetland News website yesterday – Inside Mareel