Streep hails new Belfast arts venue as 'architectural gem'

Playwright Owen McCafferty speaking at the launch of Belfasts Metropolitan Arts Centre yesterday.Photograph: Stephen Davison

SHANE HEGARTY, Arts Editor

OSCAR-WINNING actor Meryl Streep described Belfast’s newest arts venue as “an amazing gift for the people of Northern Ireland”. The Mac, in the Cathedral Quarter, has been in development since 1996 and will have cost £18 million (€21.6 million) when it opens in April.

Six storeys high, it will house two theatres, three art galleries, a dance studio, cafe, bar and other spaces for artists.

Although unable to attend in person, Streep was among those who sent congratulatory messages to the programme launch. “It really is an architectural gem in the heart of your city,” she said.

At the launch, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness recalled meeting Streep in 2007 and joked she was his favourite actor – “and then she played the role of Margaret Thatcher”.

First Minister Peter Robinson emphasised the central role the “world-class” Mac would have in Northern Ireland’s growing cultural scene, remarking on how creative industries comprised 5 per cent of Northern Ireland’s economy.

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