AN empty shop on Darley Street could soon be transformed into a modern art hub as part of a national scheme to revive flagging High Streets.

Fuse Art Space - currently based on Rawson Square, has been given a grant to look into the viability of transforming the HR Jackson Building - which has been empty for several years.

If it goes ahead the project would see £750,000 spend on the five storey building - which has most recently been used as a furniture store.

The works will include gallery spaces, a cafe/bar, a performance space with world-class sound equipment, artist studios, education space, offices, a “micro-cinema,” and accommodation for artists.

If the work goes ahead, the facility would be open to the public in 2021 - and could play a major part in Bradford’s Capital of Culture year in 2025 if the bid is successful.

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The £13,000 viability grant has come from the Architectural Heritage Fund and Department of Culture, Digital, Media and Sport. It is part of its Transforming Places Through Heritage fund - set up to “reinvigorate” England’s high streets and town centres.

The grants have been given to companies to “demonstrate creative, community led approaches, ones that will help stimulate fresh demand, provide new spaces for a range of activities and help bring back lost footfall.”

The building was constructed in the Victorian era as an upmarket department store, and also has an entrance on Piccadilly. It is located in the Bradford City Centre Conservation Area, but has struggled to find a new occupier in recent years.

Fuse Art Space opened in 2014 to tap into the “growing buzz about the city’s cultural life.”

Since then it has hosted an eclectic array of music and art events, hosting acclaimed Tuvan Throat singers Alash Ensemble for a rare UK gig, an exhibition that explored the female form from the perspective of female artists and Canvas, an exhibition involving just a chair, table and phone that visitors could answer to be given artistic “tasks” to carry out themselves.

A statement from the gallery said: “The new facility, like the old, will continue to work closely and in consultation with the communities it serves and to re-invest any profits into the provision of its facilities, trading for the benefit of its artists and audiences through the selling or merchandise and music and working closely with other local like-minded businesses to provide the services we don’t offer.”

FUSE Art Space Gallery Manager and local artist, Lukas Hornby said: “It feels like there is a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration in Bradford at the moment and we hope that all of those contributing to Bradfords creative communities can experience the benefit of renewed interest in Bradford from the press and from national funding bodies.

“We’d like to be at the heart of this with our own grassroots approach to creative development in the City Centre, championing those who are pushing boundaries in their practice and those that simply have a message to give through music, performance, and visual art.”

Si Cunningham, Chair of the Bradford Civic Society, said: “I’m really pleased to hear that FUSE have secured this funding, and their proposal sounds like exactly the sort of thing we need to see more of on Darley Street.

“The buildings on upper Darley Street are very beautiful, but they are in real need of some love. An arts hub at street level would provide a tremendous boost to the area.

“With work underway on the new market, and some of the Townscape Heritage sites in the advanced stages of planning, 2020 could be a pretty exciting year for Darley Street.”

Fuse says the new facility will to provide opportunities for emerging artists, provide opportunities for people in Bradford to access “world-class modern art, music and culture”, and “propel the regeneration of

Bradford’s northern quarter.”

Eleanor Barrett from arts group Brick Box, who is also part of the 2025 culture bid, said: “We are very excited to hear the news that Fuse has won funding through the Transforming Places Through Heritage Fund. This kind of grassroots initiative to restore and develop buildings for innovative creative uses is exactly what Bradford needs. The more we take control of our assets and provide spaces in which the cultural life of the city can thrive, the better we will serve our communities and enable Bradford’s powerful creative spirit and energy to be seen and heard. City of Culture 2025 will then become an entirely logical progression.”