Cleveland College of Art and Design (CCAD) has welcomed the first cohort of students to No.1 Church Street, the first phase of its £11 million development in Hartlepool.

The specialist arts school is working in partnership with Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC) and Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) on the regeneration of the Victorian Church Street area as a centre for innovation and the creative industries.

The £11million university-level project forms the first completed part of a wider redevelopment project in the centre of Hartlepool.

The investment in the impressive new teaching space further demonstrates the ongoing progress in the revitalisation of the area, supported by the launch of the Bus Sheds nearby, a commercial sound stage facility which opened in April 2017, plus the opening of the BIS creative business incubator space on Whitby Street for entrepreneurial creatives planned for June 2018.

Pat Chapman, Vice Principal for Employability and External Relations at CCAD, is delighted to welcome the new cohort of degree students and excited at the future opportunities for the town and region as a whole.

He said: “This is a really exciting time for new undergraduates to join us at CCAD, the opening of our new teaching and studio space at 1 Church Street marks a significant development in the learning experience for them and allows CCAD to greatly expand our offer with six new degree programmes starting next September.

“The College is now firmly established as the place to study art and design in the north with our recent Gold award in the

Teaching Excellence Framework and our expanding facilities and teaching offer make us an anchor for the development of a creative industry business cluster, which will provide jobs and learning opportunities for our students.”

The new CCAD building was created on the site of the former Lynn Street Depot and now provides 45,000 sq. ft. of teaching and administration space for degree courses such as Production Design for Stage and Screen, Textiles and Surface Design, Contemporary Textile Products, Fine Art, Photographic Practice (with Moving Image), Commercial Photography, TV, Film and Theatre Production.

The latest campus facilities include flexible studio space, two seven-metre double-height studios for photography and TV or film work, a refectory area and galley. The front of the building on Church Street and side which looks on to Mainsforth Terrace has been fitted with photo-chromatic panels, meaning its exterior changes colour depending on the viewing angle.

In a further boost to the area, earlier this year CCAD – working closely with HBC –  launched The Bus Sheds on the former vehicle depot in the town. The 3,000 sq. metre purpose-built dedicated film and TV sound stage studios will boost film and TV production in the north east and create a major industry hub for the region to attract national and international productions to the area in a sector where the British Film Institute (BFI) has recently identified a need for 10,000 more jobs to be created in the UK to meet demand.

The town centre location is in the heart of an area regularly used for location shooting by major TV dramas (Vera, Victoria, George Gently) and features (Star Wars, Atonement).  The facility is part of CCAD and as such has a ready supply of experienced undergraduates capable of supporting commercial production.

CCAD is also redeveloping its current Church Square facilities which will see the main building on Church Square develop into a library; the historical buildings Leadbitter and Municipal buildings, which were acquired from HBC in 2010 and 2012, will remain as schools for degree courses such as Body Contour Fashion, Costume Interpretation with Design, Illustration for Commercial Application and Graphic Design.