The Granite City has a vibrant and thriving cultural sector – and Aberdeen Performing Arts takes centre stage in that vital role in the life and economy of the north-east.
We catch up with Andy Kite, Head of Marketing and Communications at Aberdeen Performing Arts, to find out more about this glittering organisation and its plans and hopes for the coming months.
Tell us about Aberdeen Performing Arts.
Aberdeen Performing Arts is a cultural hub and arts charity. We are one of Scotland’s largest and most ambitious cultural organisations running three beautiful venues: His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall and The Lemon Tree.
We also offer the Granite Noir Crime Writing Festival and multi-arts festival Light the Blue, along with a team of creative practitioners and change makers. Our trading arm runs our two café bars, Coda and The Terrace.
His Majesty's Theatre hosts a range of exciting shows - from dance to comedy, West End hits to panto - all year round. Image - Aberdeen Inspired.
We are passionate about improving life chances through the arts, promoting well-being, championing creative diversity, nurturing the next generation of talent and creating, curating and presenting work on our stages that is relevant, thought-provoking and life-affirming.
We stage 700+ performances a year, and attract audiences of 350,000+ . We provide employment and talent development opportunities for artists and creatives, we commission new work and our change makers run a year-round programme of events and workshops across the North-easast.
While the majority of our audiences come from the region, we attract visitors from around the world to our signature events and festivals. We’re also open as an event space for hire and play host to graduations, exhibitions, and conferences regularly.
Andy Kite says there is a busy year ahead for Aberdeen Performing Arts. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
What do you like about being based in the City Centre?
There’s so much going on in Aberdeen at any one time, with our own events and festivals as well as amazing city-wide spectacles such as Spectra or Nuart so it’s great to be so close to so much. I live nearby as well so it’s walking distance!
What are the benefits Aberdeen Performing Arts of being an Aberdeen Inspired levy payer?
Being part of a network all focussed on making the city centre as diverse and vibrant as possible has so many benefits and makes sure we’re all working together towards a common goal.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
As always we have a busy year ahead! We’ve just wrapped up our biggest Granite Noir Festival yet, and looking to March and beyond we have events including Delve, Rise Up, Climate Week North-east and Light the Blue to name a few.
We are also keen to continue to build our audiences with some cutting-edge performance and events, such as our co-production of Dracula with the National Theatre of Scotland last year, and bring some of the highest quality shows to the region.
The Music Hall is a world-class venue for arts in Aberdeen. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
What advice would you give to new businesses looking to set up in the city centre?
There’s a really welcoming and supportive network of businesses and organisations in the city centre, so come with an open mind and be willing to collaborate and work together to create a busy and interesting city centre – we can all benefit each other.
When you’re not working where is your favourite place or thing to do in Aberdeen?
Go to the football! I’m a big Dons supporter so I go along to the matches as often as I can.
You can find more information about Aberdeen Performing Arts, including their great line-up of shows and events, here.