Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) has launched a digital-first performance venue, which management hopes will revolutionise the digital and immersive arts landscape in Wales and provide a platform for storytelling through emerging technology.

The new site will include a 550-capacity space dedicated to exploring the power of immersive experiences, as well as facilities for production, rehearsal and training, and will be the first stand-alone building that WMC has added since being opened by The Queen in 2014.

WMC currently generates over £70m per year for the Welsh economy, attracting 1.8m visitors. The new venue will complement existing performance spaces including the 1,900-seat Donald Gordon Theatre, the 250-seat Weston Studio, and 150-seat Cabaret venue, and is expected to engage over 10,000 participants in creative training over the next five years, enabling WMC’s existing youth programmes to grow. With more space for training and production, this facility can empower future generations of creatives to explore digital and immersive arts, as well as being a state-of-the-art presenting and producing hub.

In collaboration with Cardiff Council, a site has been identified opposite WMC for this initiative and the project will be a key feature of the broader ‘Cardiff Live’ development, which will also include new office spaces for the Council and exhibition halls.

The initiative, which has been in development for five years, builds on the success of Bocs, WMC’s pioneering immersive experiences and extended reality (XR) venue. Opened in 2022, Bocs has attracted new audiences to WMC, over 31,000 visitors across 18 immersive experiences. Immersive work has included multi-award-winning In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, which recreates the 90s rave scene in virtual reality.

WMC is also the official Welsh partner of three-year cross-UK ‘Immersive Arts’ consortium, which will be awarding £3.6m in grant funding to artists based in the UK between 2024 and 2027.

Cllr Russell Goodway, Cabinet Member for Investment and Development at Cardiff Council said the project was a big part of our ambition for Cardiff Live and Atlantic Wharf. “It will epitomise our approach of supporting production as well as performance, providing facilities to develop our own cultural offer as well as our local communities,” he said.

Cardiff Council have appointed Goldbeck Construction with the build contract for the redevelopment.

Image courtesy of Goldbeck Construction

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