The Dick Institute

Phase 2 1 to 10 years

Project Funding: £8 million

Riba Stage 0:

Funding Opportunities: National Heritage Lottery Fund

Key Stakeholder: Ayrshire 360

Key outcomes:

• Attractiveness
• Connectivity
• Improved way-finding and signage
• Improved vibrancy
• Improved Biodiversity

Linked projects:

• Way-finding and signage
• River Development
• Connectivity
• Public Art
• Infinity Loop

The proposal is for the Category A-listed Dick Institute on Elmbank Avenue to be reaffirmed as South West Scotland’s premier museum and art gallery. Under the new vision, its spaces will be optimised to host flagship permanent displays and high-profile temporary exhibitions. Freeing up internal footprints will allow the Dick Institute to focus on immersive, accessible storytelling. This will ensure that rare artwork, geological specimens, and social history items from the collection are showcased in a world-class gallery environment with modern environmental and security controls.

Rather than keeping the vast majority of the East Ayrshire collection locked in traditional deep storage, the expanded museum infrastructure will pioneer a new model. This intervention will allow the public, schools, and academic researchers to see stored artefacts first-hand. Together, these facilities will also provide:

• Dedicated workspaces for collection care, digitisation, and conservation.
• Community archive rooms where local groups can curate their own pop-up displays.
• Decentralised creative spaces that bring footfall directly into the town centre, supporting the “Sense of Place” regeneration strategy.

This dual-site strategy directly addresses long-standing space constraints that have previously limited the display of the wider museum collection. By creating a physical and intellectual link between the Dick Institute and Wallace Chambers, East Ayrshire Council and Ayrshire360 will generate a robust cultural tourism route will be achieved. This alignment will stimulate town centre footfall, preserve vital architectural heritage assets, and give the community unprecedented ownership over their shared material history.

Key criteria achieved:

Make the town centre more accessible and easy to move around

Enhance blue and green infrastructure for nature, wellbeing, play, recreation and resilience

Incorporate local history, art and traditions into the design of places

Generate inward investment and stimulate a diverse range of economic activity

Provide flexible spaces for a range of economic, recreational and cultural activity, recreation and resilience

Provide opportunities for people to engage with each other fostering a sense of place and empowering communities to take a role in the success of the town centre.

Support health and wellbeing

Next steps:

The following recommendations for next steps are as follows:

• Review funding opportunities
• Develop spatial feasibility studies for both buildings
• Consider Spatial Linkages between the two buildings